What Is Customer Churn?

Customer churn, often referred to as customer attrition, is a business term that describes the process when customers stop doing business with a company. It’s a critical metric because it’s often less expensive to retain existing customers than it is to acquire new ones. Churn can occur for a variety of reasons: customers may be dissatisfied with a product or service, they may find a better or cheaper alternative, or they might simply no longer need the product or service. In other cases, churn is a sign of a deeper issue with customer loyalty.

Understanding customer churn is not just about identifying the rate at which customers leave, or predicting customer churn in advance, but also recognizing why they leave. This knowledge can provide valuable insights into the areas of your business that may require improvement. Identifying and addressing these issues can reduce customer churn, enhance customer loyalty, and ultimately increase profitability.

The Importance of Reducing Customer Churn

Reducing customer churn is vital for every business. It’s not just about maintaining a healthy customer base; it’s also about ensuring the financial health and profitability of the business.

Financial Health and Profitability

Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing one. Moreover, existing customers are likelier to try new products and spend more than new customers. Therefore, a high churn rate can significantly impact a company’s bottom line.

The impact of customer churn on revenue is not just immediate; it also has a long-term effect. When a customer leaves, not only does the company lose that customer’s current revenue, but it also loses all its potential future revenues. Furthermore, the company may have to spend more on marketing and sales efforts to replace the lost customers, further eroding profits.

Predictable Business Growth

Reducing customer churn is also crucial for predictable business growth. A business with a high churn rate is like a leaky bucket; if water keeps leaking out, you’ll never fill the bucket. On the other hand, a business with a low churn rate is like a sturdy container; the more customers you add, the fuller it gets.

A low churn rate allows for more predictable revenue, enabling better planning and forecasting. It provides stability and allows the business to focus on growth strategies rather than constantly trying to plug leaks.

Customer Loyalty and Advocacy

Customer churn is not just about lost sales; it’s also about failed and lost relationships. When customers leave, they take their loyalty and advocacy, which can be far more valuable than their immediate financial contribution. Loyal customers are more likely to refer others to your business, and word-of-mouth referrals are often the most effective form of marketing.

A high churn rate can also harm a company’s reputation. Customers who leave due to dissatisfaction may share their negative experiences with others, deterring potential customers. On the other hand, reducing customer churn helps build a loyal customer base that can act as brand ambassadors, promoting the company’s products or services to its network.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Finally, reducing customer churn is crucial for enhancing the customer experience. When customers churn, it’s often a signal that something is wrong with the customer experience. It might be poor customer service, a lack of perceived value, or a product that doesn’t meet the customer’s needs.

By focusing on reducing churn, businesses can improve the customer experience. They can identify the pain points that drive customers away and find ways to address them. This helps retain existing customers and makes the product or service more attractive to potential customers.

5 Ways to Reduce Customer Churn

Now that we understand what customer churn is and why it’s crucial to reduce it, let’s explore five strategies to help you achieve this.

Enhance Customer Onboarding

A well-structured and efficient onboarding process is the first step towards reducing customer churn. The onboarding stage sets the tone for the entire customer relationship and can significantly impact a customer’s decision to continue using your product or service.

Ensuring customers understand how to use your product or service and quickly gain value from it is key to a successful onboarding process. This can be achieved by offering precise and detailed user guides, instructional videos, or even one-on-one training sessions.

Improve Customer Engagement and Communication

Constant and meaningful engagement with your customers is crucial for retention. Regular communication via emails, newsletters, or social media can help keep your business top of mind for your customers.

However, it’s not just about frequency but also the quality of your communication. Personalized messages, addressing your customers’ specific needs and interests, are far more effective than generic communication.

Invest in Quality Customer Support

High-quality customer support is another vital area in reducing churn. Customers should feel that their concerns and complaints are being heard and addressed promptly and efficiently.

Investing in a skilled customer support team and implementing customer-friendly policies can significantly improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby reducing churn.

Regularly Update and Upgrade Product/Service Offerings

In today’s fast-paced world, businesses must continually evolve to meet their customers’ changing needs and expectations. Regularly updating and upgrading your product or service offerings can keep your customers engaged and reduce their likelihood of seeking alternatives.

This strategy reduces churn and enhances your product’s value proposition, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Implement Predictive Analytics for Early Churn Detection

Lastly, implementing predictive analytics can help detect early signs of customer churn. This involves analyzing data to identify patterns or trends that indicate a customer is at risk of churning.

By detecting these signs early, businesses can proactively address the issue and take steps to improve the customer’s experience, thereby reducing the likelihood of churn.

In conclusion, understanding and addressing customer churn is crucial for any business’s success. By implementing these strategies, businesses can significantly reduce churn, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and ultimately boost their bottom line.

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Brands are under immense pressure to advance and evolve as customer buying trends change, budgets shrink, and broad economic factors become increasingly complicated.

In response, many companies are turning to emerging applications of well-known technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to make their companies more agile, competitive, and responsive.

These technologies provide powerful buyer insights that allow companies to understand better when customers will make a purchase, what they will buy, and when they will engage.

According to a Deloitte survey, 79 percent of respondents have fully deployed three or more AI technologies, a 15 percent year-over-year increase. As AI and ML technologies become more ubiquitous as mainstream services soar in popularity and serve as proof of concept for many business leaders, everyone seems to want more. To accelerate AI and ML adoption, three-fifths of businesses intend to increase spending on digital transformation by the end of 2023. Of course, simply throwing money at the latest tech trends doesn’t guarantee business success.

The key lies in leveraging data, a company’s most abundant and valuable resource, to directly enhance AI and ML solutions that impact core KPIs at the enterprise level. These systems can help companies achieve two foundational objectives: increase top-line revenue and reduce overall costs by enabling new efficiencies.

Here’s how leaders can leverage strategic applications of this technology to remain agile and create compelling customer interactions with impact in 2024 and beyond.

#1 Collect the Right Data & Collect it with Consent

Many companies are overwhelmed by the volume, velocity, and complexity of customer data they collect. They are unable to convert this raw data into actionable customer-facing interactions.

One survey of CIOs and senior IT leaders found that nearly three-quarters of respondents said they were struggling with data management, and most companies are discarding the vast majority—up to 90 percent—of the data they receive.

Effective AI and ML implementation is predicated on accurate, actionable, and timely customer data, so companies must turn off the firehose of information instead of collecting the correct information at the right time to inform the right decisions.

Brands can leverage several data sources to obtain this information, including:

• Transactional data from credit card and other financial services
• Customer-collected data from surveys, research, and other buyer-centric sources
• Loyalty data from product offerings and other promotional opportunities

Specifically, focus on incentivizing customers to provide 20 percent of the data that provides 80 percent of the value.

The brands best positioned to receive the highest value data will acquire customers’ consent before collecting data, capitalizing on transparent data collection practices to solicit support and build trust.

The results of building customer trust with this approach can reach all the way to the bottom line. Eighty-four percent of consumers say they are more likely to share information with brands with transparent data practices and policies, 77 percent say it impacts their purchases, and 50 percent say they will purchase more from transparent brands.

The message for innovative brands is simple: obtain explicit consent from individuals before collecting data. Users should be able to opt in or out easily. Some consumers will undoubtedly opt-out, but those that remain, when properly nurtured, become the backbone of solid brands.

#2 Compile a “Single View of the Customer”

Compiling a “single view of the customer” means having a complete and accurate understanding of a customer’s needs, preferences, and behaviors based on all the data and interactions a company has collected about them.

This can be achieved through multi-platform infrastructures that allow businesses to store, track, and analyze customer data from various sources, such as sales, marketing, and customer service.

Such efforts focusing on the value exchange must gather the information to complete the 80/20 guiding principle, which relies on progressive profiling to provide a single customer view across all touchpoints.

#3 Create Real-time Interactions

Real-time interactions can propel people through buying by delivering the information, insights, and promotion needed to convert leads into sales.

While customers expect real-time, hyper-personalized interactions, many anticipate that brands won’t be able to deliver. One industry report found that 44 percent of Gen Z shoppers and 43 percent of millennials “expended more effort than expected to complete an interaction.”

In 2023 and beyond, time is a valuable currency. Companies can increase conversions by deploying AI and ML solutions to power real-time interaction management systems that foster emotional connections, identify potential pain points, and optimize the buying journey.

Many brands continue to rely on static content to entice buyers. AI and ML solutions let brands move beyond this, delivering real-time, personalized interactions at scale.

#4: Create Hyper-Personalized Experiences for customers

A McKinsey & Company report found that 71 percent of consumers expect brands to provide personalized experiences, and most are disappointed when they don’t deliver.

Customer data is key to personalizing customer experiences, but many brands are overwhelmed by the firehose of information, making the sheer data volume and information sprawl an impediment to progress.

AI is making sense of this information and using it to generate targeted advertising content that empowers personalized experiences at scale.

Marketing, commerce, analytics and data, and merchandising can use AI in different ways to present targeted content to prospects and customers through lightboxes, promotional links, special offers and discounts, and platform onboarding efforts.

AI is moving brand marketing away from content repositories that present plausibly engaging content to consumers to an environment where analytics, profile information, and segmentation data can be used in real-time to create customer-centric, generative content that converts buyers.

In retail advertising as one example, AI allows advertisers to present advertising content with surgical precision in ways that we could only dream of five years ago.

Truly Data Driven

Leveraging AI and ML is becoming increasingly crucial for brands to maintain relevance in a digital-first world, to remain competitive, and to create compelling customer interactions. Businesses can increase top-line revenue and reduce costs by collecting the correct data, compiling a “single view of the customer,” and creating real-time interactions.

However, it’s important to note that simply investing in these technologies is not enough. The key is using data, a company’s most valuable resource, to impact core KPIs at the enterprise level directly. As AI and ML adoption continues to rise, companies implementing these strategies will be well-positioned to remain agile and stay ahead of the competition.

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The interaction between customers and businesses has increased exponentially with higher communication channel diversity across multiple touchpoints. McKinsey reports 94% of companies surveyed claim to positively experience the new omnichannel sales model in comparison to the sales model they used before. It is common knowledge that customer experiences (CX) determine a company’s ability to pull ahead of the competition. But for CX to become compelling and advantageous, it must incorporate connected experiences that foster lasting relationships and loyalty.

Connected CX consumes data generated from automated systems and intelligent technologies to deliver gratifying services adaptable to changing tastes and demands. Due to these favorable outcomes, connected CX satisfies customers by meeting their needs and expectations through personalized and curated offerings at any point. The cumulative effect of it translates into a customer’s effortless buying journey that enhances business conversions, loyalty, and bottom-line growth. Providing an effortless and friction-free customer journey has become so vital that lagging behind will prove costly for any business.

Do we know why organizations that offer connected CX have a higher capability to meet customers’ evolving needs and build long-term relationships?

Consistency Builds Trust:

A business must coordinate each customer touchpoint along the customer journey and align its efforts across all interaction channels. For instance, if a marketing strategy emphasizes a hassle-free return policy, but an unfamiliar in-store associate creates problems for the customer, the customer may not return. Consistency in customer service across a brand’s relationship with a customer is essential in ensuring satisfaction, building trust, and loyalty, thereby preventing customers from seeking other options.

Customers who receive exceptional service and positive experiences throughout their interaction with a brand will come to anticipate the same level of service and experiences in the future. Conversely, customers encountering poor service with a business will likely form negative assumptions that may lead to losing future business opportunities. Simply put, consistency in customer interactions translates into repeated purchases. Even a single negative experience can cause customers to move on to other brands. Providing customers with a consistent experience every time is the key to achieving long-term success.

Convenience Facilitates Switching Between Channels:

Offering multiple channels to interact with customers is the norm now as it fits perfectly with modern consumer behavior. Moreover, customers who engage with a business through various digital touchpoints are more likely to convert and become repeat customers. An omnichannel experience enables customers to interact with a company, enabling them to switch between multiple channels as part of a seamless customer journey.

Marketing, sales, customer support, and in-store experiences are coordinated, allowing customers to easily transition from one touchpoint to another to complete their purchase. For example, a customer browsing a social media channel finds an ad for a fashion retail store and discovers a pair of shoes they love. After clicking the ad, they land on the store’s social media handle, obtain more information about the shoes, and read customer reviews. Next, they navigate to the store’s website to place an order, but their size is out of stock.

They use the live chat widget to ask an agent when their size will be available again. The agent informs them that their size is currently in stock at the customer’s nearest store. The agent reserves the shoes for the customer, and the customer goes to the store the following day to make the purchase. The convenience of a connected CX can help companies build robust customer relationships, drive revenue growth, and improve operational efficiency.

Personalization Makes Customers Feel Valued:

Personalization is the cardinal element for brands nurturing customer relationships in today’s hyper-connected, competitive landscape. Companies rely on data integration across multiple channels and platforms to achieve personalization and create a holistic view of each customer. Businesses must collect, integrate, and analyze data from various sources, such as customer interactions, purchase history, and social media activity. As new channels and touchpoints emerge, they must adapt quickly and ensure that the CX remains tailored and personalized.

Customers who feel like a company comprehends and values their unique needs are likelier to become repeat customers. One way to provide a customized customer experience and reward loyal clients is by offering personalized recommendations and promotions based on their purchasing history. By analyzing customer data and employing machine learning algorithms, businesses offer suggestions that cater to the interests and needs of individual customers, making them feel that the brand puts effort into creating a tailored experience just for them.

The effect is a connection and trust between the customer and the business. By providing personalized recommendations, companies can create a more relevant and enjoyable experience for the customer, making customers feel valued and appreciated.

Efficiency Speeds up Engagement:

In the ever-evolving landscape of consumer behavior and habits, providing efficiency and speed while engaging the customers is critical to meeting expectations and satisfying and retaining customers. It’s essential to provide the efficiency of real-time engagement opportunities like live chats for convenience and immediate feedback. Brands that respond slowly risk losing customers who value efficient issue resolution. The fewer steps required to make a purchase, the less time customers spend, leading to higher satisfaction with the brand.

Failing to optimize efficiency in customer experiences can drive customers to competitors’ websites. When companies engage their customers with a proactive approach by offering complete assistance that addresses specific needs through proper communication and collaboration, it results in effective and personalized interactions. Efficient CX connects with customers to cater to their needs and even goes beyond to cater to their latent needs. Another focus area for efficient customer service offerings is securing customers from cybersecurity threats such as data breaches, identity theft, and ransomware attacks.

Companies must invest in robust security measures to mitigate these risks and ensure their data collection and storage practices comply with relevant regulations and compliance requirements.

Loyalty Leads to Increased Profitability:

Customer loyalty is a critical component of maximizing profitability for businesses. According to Forrest Research, acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than keeping existing ones. Therefore, a company that sells more products to repeat customers will ultimately have higher profits. It is essential to promote customer loyalty because gaining new customers at the expense of old ones is not a sustainable approach in competitive industries.

Measuring customer loyalty is straightforward and can be tracked by monitoring the number of customers who stop doing business with a company. The Gartner Group reported that 80% of future revenue would come from 20% of existing customers. Even when businesses launch new marketing campaigns, they are more likely to sell products to existing customers than new prospects. Building customer loyalty means prioritizing customer satisfaction over short-term sales numbers.

Selling a product that causes customer loss may result in record profits, but it will ultimately decrease the organization’s earning potential. Customer loyalty increases profitability by encouraging repeat business, reducing operating costs, establishing a reasonable price premium, and generating referrals. To summarize, promoting customer loyalty is essential for any business that wants to maximize profitability, and it is more cost-effective than acquiring new customers.

Connected CX Nurtures a Flawless Purchase Journey in Fulfilling Customer Delight:

As connected CX creates a consistent and engaging customer journey across all touchpoints, it eases the buying process navigation without disruptions or complications. This results in higher satisfaction rates, repeat purchases, and increased conversions. Customers on a smooth buying trail are likely to complete their purchases. Additionally, it saves costs as customers with effortless buying journeys are less likely to need assistance.

Customers with positive experiences remain loyal, and an effortless customer journey goes a long way in delivering customer delight. A connected CX-driven customer journey not only improves the user experience but also contributes to reduced support costs and increased efficiency for the brand. Companies that prioritize these elements will be able to provide a superior customer experience that sets them apart from their peers.

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The rapid emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) plays a vital role in shaping the future of e-commerce. It unites physical objects through internet connectivity and advanced data collection capabilities. As observations reveal, IoT transforms how businesses track, analyze, and anticipate customer needs and augment the overall shopping experience.

“E-commerce & IoT are the modern-day amigos that can provide seamless experiences to its users and can help businesses thrive, no matter how dull the market gets.”

The article shares insights about the growing impact of IoT on e-commerce. It delves into strategies that e-commerce marketplaces can adopt to harness the full potential of this technological revolution.

What is one of the most talked about concepts — IoT?

Physical devices like gadgets, appliances, and vehicles possess embedded software, sensors, and connectivity. This integration enables the objects to establish connections and exchange data, defining the concept of interconnectedness.

Internet technologies have made it possible to connect physical elements to the network, which is the basis for developing the IoT (Internet of Things).

This technology allows for the collection and sharing of data from a vast network of devices, creating opportunities for more efficient and automated systems.

Is IoT the game changer?

Internet of Things (IoT) is the networking of physical objects that contain electronics embedded within their architecture to communicate and sense interactions amongst each other or concerning the external environment. In the upcoming years, IoT-based technology will offer advanced services and practically change how people lead their daily lives.

Advancements in agriculture, power, gene therapies, smart cities and smart parking management, edge computing, big data, medicine and healthcare, and smart homes are just a very few of the categorical examples where IoT is strongly established.

Today, with around 15 billion connected IoT devices worldwide, the figure, Oracle mentions, is expected to rise to a whopping 22 billion by the year 2025.

The latest IoT analytics report shows that global IoT connections grew by 18% in 2022 to 14.3 billion active IoT endpoints. This number is predicted to grow another 16%, leading to 16.7 billion active endpoints.

This growth for the year 2023 is slightly lower than it was predicted for 2022. Essentially, IoT device connections are expected to rise for several years to follow. These figures leave every stakeholder thinking about whether IoT is really the game-changer.

Image credit: Here.

IoT in E-commerce: Dictating new rules and pushing industry limits

Image credit: Here.

IoT refers to a network of interconnected devices embedded with sensors, software, and network connectivity, enabling the collection and exchange of data with minimal human intervention. With billions of devices connected worldwide, IoT presents immense opportunities for e-commerce markets. This fac reshapes how businesses operate, manage operations, and engage with customers.

Research firm Gartner stated that IoT would result in a transformation of the world of delivery services. The magnanimous impact of IoT on e-commerce can be well gauged by the fact that the study stated that a thirty-fold increase in Internet-connected physical machines by 2020 will significantly alter how the sector works.

An example of IoT’s applicability in e-commerce can be comprehended by the fact that there are warehouse robots within e-commerce companies that work with machine learning algorithms. Machines can identify certain items within a cluttered environment and determine the best ways to pick them up safely and effectively.

Better Demand Analysis, Personalization, and Customer Engagement

IoT devices can collect vast amounts of data on customer behavior, preferences, and purchase patterns. By analyzing this data, e-commerce platforms can do a better demand analysis, create highly-personalized shopping experiences for varying consumer needs, and offer relevant product recommendations and targeted promotions. This level of personalization enhances customer engagement, eventually nurturing brand loyalty and driving sales.

The use of IoT has been pretty revelatory for businesses. Its use in information sharing helps firms better understand their customers’ needs and collaborate with them for better demand planning and ameliorated customer service. IoT helps to close the information gap in modern supply chains by capturing fine-grained information among organizational entities, processes, and people in real-time

Inventory Management and Supply Chain Efficiency

IoT enables businesses to implement data-driven inventory management systems using sensors, RFID tags, and real-time tracking technologies. These systems monitor stock levels, anticipate replenishment needs, and avoid out-of-stock situations. This ensures that the right products are available when customers demand them. IoT’s potential to streamline supply chain processes includes optimizing logistics, warehouse management, and order fulfillment, leading to improved operational efficiency, cost savings, and faster deliveries.

The cyber-physical systems (CPS), which are nicely integrated with communication, computation, and control systems,, can manage the inventory and make the supply chain free from bottlenecks.

By analyzing demand data and enabling self-decision-making algorithms for the machines in CPS, the production line can work efficiently with a minimum of direct human role and fewer errors in real-time interactions.

A paper published in Elsevier mentions that several scholars have investigated the potential of RFID for supply chain traceability, stating that RFID provides increased visibility, tracking, and enhanced communication throughout the supply chain.

The paper also asserts that businesses have myriad reasons to consider applying IoT in their supply chain models. The extant literature that the paper has produced establishes that IoT can be extremely useful. It can hep in tracking to locate products, materials, and assets, and to know their current status and environmental conditions. This is highly suggestive of the fact that herein, lie heaps of opportunities for e-commerce businesses.

Smart Warehouses and Automation

IoT-powered smart warehouses play a crucial role in transforming e-commerce operations. The integration of IoT devices like sensors, drones, and autonomous robots facilitates automation, enabling smoother processes and reducing human errors. These capabilities allow businesses to manage inventory more effectively, expedite order processing and shipping, and ultimately deliver better customer experiences.

With the challenges of storing and warehousing growing in abundance, one of the finest ways of combating such a situation is the automation and robotization of the warehouse system. On the one hand, automation expedites business operations and smoothens the storage and movement of inventory. On the other hand, robotization does not mean completely replacing human work with machines. Instead, it is about supplementing and increasing human work efficiency with robotic systems.

Consider the example of Amazon, a known tech giant in the e-commerce space. It effectively uses IoT installed robots that take care of picking, packing, and many other jobs, ensuring the product’s effectiveness. Amazon, in their warehouses, uses drones as well to pick up and deliver products. The engineers at Amazon are also working on a pinch-grasping robot. Tests showed a prototype achieved a tenfold reduction in product damage due to its gentle but secure grip.

Seamless Omnichannel Experience

The Internet of Things if utilized well by businesses, does lead to ameliorated omnichannel experiences.

Explicitly said, one of the primary benefits of IoT is its ability to create a seamless omnichannel experience for customers. As per a report published in Walker, a customer experience consulting firm, the customer experience will overtake price and product as the key differentiator by 2020 (and we’ve seen this). Standing in 2023, we know the importance of customer experiences (CX) and the joys they can bring. This speaks volumes about the relevance of customer experience (CX) in today’s customer-centric business world.

By synchronizing data across multiple channels, IoT allows e-commerce marketplaces of all natures — and sizes and brick-and-mortar stores to offer a unified shopping experience. Moreover, real-time updates and access to shopping carts, wish lists, and customer profiles ensure a consistent and personalized approach.

Conducting your businesses by leveraging the IoT devices should gather direct, up-to-date customer feedback to understand what matters most to them. They can then deliver as per the varying needs. IoT can be a game changer for businesses if integrated effectively, as it offers seamless omnichannel experiences.

IoT-enabled Delivery Solutions

IoT can potentially revolutionize the delivery process in e-commerce, from smart lockers to drone deliveries. Connected devices provide real-time location tracking, enabling businesses to monitor shipments and provide customers with up-to-date information on their orders. Autonomous vehicles and drones guided by IoT technologies promise faster, more efficient deliveries that minimize costs and enhance customer satisfaction.

Technavio market research report suggests that the autonomous delivery market is poised to grow by USD 16.86 billion during 2020-2024. Given this projected trend, Chinese e-commerce companies deployed robots, more so to deliver orders to combat the pandemic.

A Chinese delivery app ‘Meituan Dianping’ launched the concept of “contactless delivery”, in which the brand has started using fully automated vehicles to send grocery orders to customers’ homes in Beijing.

Strategies for Ecommerce Marketplaces

Having learned that IoT influences logistics, inventory, warehouse management, deliveries, and the overall e-commerce scenario, businesses should act wisely. And business wisdom lies in embracing technology, integrating IoT, and becoming the leaders of change.

To capitalize on the IoT revolution in e-commerce, businesses must adopt innovative strategies. Besides that, they must be capable of addressing current market dynamics and anticipating future developments.

1. Embrace IoT-driven Personalization: Leverage IoT devices and data analytics to offer personalized experiences and tailored product recommendations. The perfect blend of IoT and data can help businesses develop targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with individual customer preferences.
2. Optimize Supply Chain and Inventory Management: Implement connected devices and real-time tracking technologies for efficient supply chain and inventory management. This will help in reducing costs, avoiding stockouts, and ensuring products are available when customers need them.
3. Design Omnichannel Experiences: Focus on building seamless, synchronized experiences across all touchpoints and channels. This will give customers the convenience and flexibility they always desire.
4. Invest in IoT-enabled Delivery Solutions: Explore innovative delivery solutions such as autonomous vehicles, drones, or smart lockers. This can be done by enhancing customer satisfaction with faster, more convenient deliveries.
5. Prioritise Security and Privacy: As IoT devices collect vast amounts of data, it is critical to prioritize security and privacy concerns. Implementing robust encryption and stringent data protection measures can help businesses take care.

Be Future Ready: Stay informed about IoT developments that impact e-commerce. Also, businesses must act proactively to adapt and evolve with market developments.

Wrapping up

The development of the Internet has affected almost all businesses operating in today’s tech-dominated market. To remain competitively upfront — today’s supply chain and logistics industry should prioritize developing and implementing IoT technologies. This will help them drive significant advancements and enhance warehouse systems.

Undoubtedly, the Internet of Things is transforming the e-commerce playing field. It impacts every aspect of the customer journey, from personalization to delivery. Businesses can gain quickly by embracing IoT technologies, blending them in, and adopting forward-looking strategies. By integrating IoT, futuristic e-commerce businesses can doubtlessly enhance customer satisfaction and secure a competitive edge in an ever-evolving landscape.

The emergence of IoT has paved a smooth way where there wasn’t initially — ones where businesses were stagnating. But, the fact remains at the heart of every contemporary business and wakeful stakeholder that if IoT is understood and absorbed well, it will help around 70% of retailers from all over the world to improve their customer relations

Concludingly, there is no doubt that the time to seize the opportunities presented by IoT is now. Businesses and entrepreneurs that leverage the potential of IoT will undoubtedly thrive in the e-commerce marketplace of the future.

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In today’s highly competitive business landscape, delivering exceptional customer service is paramount to success. It not only builds customer loyalty but also drives business growth. According to recent studies, organizations that prioritize customer service have been found to experience a 10-15% increase in customer retention rates and, on average, a 5.7 times greater likelihood of gaining new customers. However, as the demand for exceptional customer experiences continues to rise, companies face the challenge of ensuring they have the right talent equipped with the necessary competencies to provide outstanding service.

The Significance of Exceptional Customer Service:

To set the stage, let’s delve into the crucial role of exceptional customer service in today’s business landscape. We’ll explore the impact of positive customer experiences on customer loyalty and business growth, citing relevant statistics and real-world examples. Additionally, we’ll address the common challenges faced by organizations in delivering exceptional customer service, such as handling customer grievances, addressing diverse customer needs, and maintaining consistency across various touchpoints.

Unveiling the Key Competencies for Customer Service Success:

In this section, we’ll explore the essential competencies that empower customer service professionals to excel in their roles. We’ll discuss empathy and the ability to understand and connect with customers on an emotional level. Adaptability and problem-solving skills will also take center stage, enabling service professionals to navigate diverse customer situations and find effective solutions. Effective verbal and written communication will be highlighted as a core competency, along with the importance of time management and domain knowledge in providing efficient and knowledgeable customer support.

The Transformative Power of Assessments:

Assessments are pivotal in identifying and measuring the key competencies required for exceptional customer service. We’ll explore the benefits of incorporating assessments into the hiring and talent management process, emphasizing how they eliminate biases, optimize decision-making, and ensure a more objective evaluation of candidates. By utilizing assessments, organizations can make informed decisions and select candidates with the desired competencies, setting the stage for a high-performing customer service team.

The PMaps Customer Service Assessment:

Introducing the Customer Service Assessment, we’ll showcase how this innovative solution from PMaps enables organizations to evaluate candidates’ customer service competencies effectively. We’ll highlight its customizable nature, allowing organizations to tailor assessments to their specific requirements. Additionally, we’ll discuss how the assessment goes beyond traditional approaches by incorporating real-life simulations to evaluate candidates’ problem-solving and communication skills. Through the assessment’s language-agnostic approach, organizations can assess candidates from diverse linguistic backgrounds, fostering inclusivity and diversity within their customer service teams.

Elevating Global Customer Interactions with eVA – Voice and Accent Assessment:

Shifting focus to global customer interactions, we’ll introduce eVA – Voice and Accent Assessment as a cutting-edge solution from PMaps. This assessment evaluates candidates’ pronunciation, accent, and communication skills, ensuring effective and clear communication with customers worldwide.

We’ll discuss how organizations can leverage eVA to enhance their global customer interactions, optimize customer satisfaction, and drive business success. Emphasizing its unique “Solutioning” section, which measures candidates’ comprehension, problem-solving, and communication skills, we’ll highlight how eVA sets itself apart from competitors and provides a holistic evaluation of candidates’ language proficiency.

Conclusion

In conclusion, exceptional customer service is not a luxury but a necessity in today’s business environment. By harnessing the power of assessments, organizations can identify and develop the competencies required for customer service excellence. With PMaps Solutions, including the Customer Service Assessment and eVA – Voice and Accent Assessment, organizations gain access to cutting-edge tools that unlock the full potential of their talent.

Organizations can elevate their customer service capabilities by selecting candidates with the right competencies, fostering positive customer experiences, and achieving remarkable business outcomes. To learn more about PMaps Solutions and how they can transform your customer service capabilities, explore our website and discover the solutions that will revolutionize your approach to customer service.

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The Emerging Technology group at Walmart is pioneering the use of conversational AI to revolutionize the retail industry. After working on conversational AI for over 2.5 years, the team has achieved remarkable results. The team employs conversational AI to make every Walmart location and division around the world “speak retail” and rapidly enhance the shopping experience for customers and employees. In this article, we’ll look at how Walmart’s Emerging Tech team is using conversational artificial intelligence to shake up the retail industry.

With $622 billion in revenue in FY2023 and $152.3 billion in Q1 FY2024, Walmart is the largest retailer in the world. The business has been putting faith in cutting-edge technologies like conversational AI to help customers more easily locate and purchase the goods they need. Helping departments all over Walmart build their own conversational experiences at scale, the Emerging Tech group has been crucial.

Helping customers while they shop, automating customer service, and boosting employee output are just some of the ways Walmart is putting conversational AI to work. The company’s customer service automation, which includes its use of conversational AI, has proven highly successful. With the help of conversational AI, customer service representatives spend less time on the phone with clients, and 66 million assisted contacts have been made possible. Over a million employees at Walmart are also participating in the company’s conversational experiences with its 50 million customers.

Walmart’s mission is to use conversational AI to make every Walmart location and department “speak retail,” thereby enhancing the shopping experience for customers and employees globally at unprecedented scale and speed. Using the insights gained by the company in the areas of natural language understanding and processing, as well as large language models, the Emerging Tech team enables teams across the company to create their own conversational experiences at scale.

In order to better serve their customers, the team has been using their retail expertise and data to experiment quickly and learn from their mistakes. The retail industry is being revolutionized by Walmart’s methodical approach to bringing greater scale, speed, and AI-driven insight across multiple channels. The fact that Walmart’s conversational AI platform can be deployed in foreign countries rapidly and without the need for extensive language programming or expertise is fascinating.

Walmart’s efforts to create a scalable platform have allowed the company to expand its use of conversational AI beyond the United States, with teams in countries like Chile able to begin using the platform after only a few weeks of onboarding. Having spent so much time perfecting its conversational AI and modifying its technologies to better serve its customers, Walmart has been able to scale its conversational experiences on a global scale.

Due to its standardized, scalable, and fast-to-deploy platform, the Emerging Tech team was able to onboard the Walmart Chile operations in a matter of weeks, adapting the platform to the specific needs of the country. The Chilean team developed more than 60 unique flows, leading to a 20% increase in customer satisfaction. One of the benefits of Walmart’s approach to conversational AI is the company’s agility and willingness to try new things quickly.

Ask Sam is a conversational artificial intelligence tool developed by Walmart’s Emerging Tech team to increase the efficiency of store employees in areas such as customer service and scheduling. Over two million employees at Walmart are now utilizing the app, and the results have been positive for productivity.

To find the location of an item in the store, for example, a customer could use the Ask Sam feature, which is accessible on all of Walmart’s mobile apps, to pose a question to an employee. But they also use it for themselves, to figure out what they have to do, when they have to do it, and other details about their productivity. The Emerging Technology group at Walmart believes there is great potential in enabling these conversational experiences across the entire company.

The Emerging Tech team at Walmart employs many different technologies to address retail issues. They’ve created things like voice assistance and Text to Shop, where customers can tell stores what they want by sending a text message with a list of items. Because of this, they are able to complete their shopping with minimal effort.

The group uses NLP tools, such as large language models, to help other groups within the company build their own conversational experiences. In order to better serve their customers, the team has been using their retail expertise and data to experiment quickly and learn from their mistakes.

Desiree Gosby, vice president of emerging tech at Walmart, said that when asked about the difficulties of operationalizing large language models, Walmart is not alone. We’re working through a few things to ensure that “we’re creating a trustworthy experience, if you will,” as part of what we do. Gosby also mentioned that the Emerging Tech team is working on cost management and addressing issues like hallucination.

In conclusion, the Emerging Tech team at Walmart is leading a retail revolution with conversational AI. In order to better serve their customers, the team has been using their retail expertise and data to experiment quickly and learn from their mistakes. The retail industry is being revolutionized by Walmart’s methodical approach to bringing greater scale, speed, and AI-driven insight across multiple channels. As a result of the group’s efforts, Walmart can now use conversational AI on a global scale, allowing it to expand its use of the technology beyond the United States. The Emerging Technology group at Walmart believes there is great potential in enabling these conversational experiences across the entire company.

First reported on VentureBeat

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: How is Walmart utilizing conversational AI to revolutionize the retail industry?

Walmart’s Emerging Tech team has been working on conversational AI for over 2.5 years to enhance the shopping experience for customers and employees. They aim to make every Walmart location and division “speak retail” by employing conversational AI. The team focuses on automating customer service, boosting employee productivity, and providing assistance to customers while they shop.

Q2: What are the benefits of using conversational AI at Walmart?

Conversational AI has proven highly successful in automating customer service at Walmart. Customer service representatives spend less time on the phone with clients, and over 66 million assisted contacts have been made possible. Additionally, more than a million Walmart employees engage with conversational experiences, leading to improved customer satisfaction. Conversational AI helps Walmart improve customer service, enhance employee productivity, and streamline the shopping experience.

Q3: How does Walmart’s conversational AI platform work?

Walmart’s Emerging Tech team leverages natural language understanding and processing, as well as large language models, to enable teams across the company to create their own conversational experiences at scale. The platform allows for rapid deployment and can be used in different countries without extensive language programming or expertise. Walmart’s scalable approach to conversational AI facilitates global expansion and customization to meet specific country needs.

Q4: What are some examples of Walmart’s use of conversational AI?

Walmart has developed Ask Sam, a conversational AI tool that increases the efficiency of store employees in areas like customer service and scheduling. Over two million employees use the app, resulting in improved productivity. Walmart also employs voice assistance and Text to Shop features, allowing customers to easily locate items and complete their shopping with minimal effort.

Q5: How does Walmart’s Emerging Tech team experiment and learn from their mistakes?

The Emerging Tech team at Walmart uses its retail expertise and data to experiment quickly and iterate on their conversational AI initiatives. They employ various technologies and NLP tools, such as large language models, to build conversational experiences and address retail challenges. Walmart’s approach allows them to adapt, learn, and refine their strategies to better serve customers and enhance the retail experience.

Q6: What challenges does Walmart face in operationalizing large language models?

According to Desiree Gosby, the vice president of emerging tech at Walmart, the company is working through challenges to ensure a trustworthy experience when operationalizing large language models. They are addressing issues like cost management and handling concerns such as hallucination. Walmart is committed to creating a reliable and efficient conversational AI experience for their customers.

Q7: How has Walmart’s conversational AI impacted their global operations?

Walmart’s scalable conversational AI platform has enabled them to expand its use beyond the United States. The Emerging Tech team successfully onboarded Walmart Chile operations in just a few weeks, resulting in a 20% increase in customer satisfaction. Walmart’s agility and willingness to try new approaches quickly have contributed to their ability to provide conversational experiences globally and adapt to specific country needs.

Q8: What is Walmart’s vision for conversational AI within the company?

Walmart aims to enable conversational experiences across its entire company, making every location and department “speak retail.” They believe in the potential of conversational AI to enhance the shopping experience for customers and employees at an unprecedented scale and speed. By leveraging their expertise, data, and retail insights, Walmart’s Emerging Tech team strives to transform the retail industry through the strategic implementation of conversational AI.

Featured Image Credit: Unsplash

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Businesses must invest in marketing to create awareness, attract customers, and drive sales, ensuring their growth and success and creating a robust and effective marketing strategy, breaking down the silos and encouraging a multi-departmental, multidisciplinary approach is critical. Collaboration is essential, and nowhere more so than the collaboration between marketing and customer experience (CX).

These two departments can create a unified approach that enhances customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty through proper alignment. Integrating SEO, social media, and content marketing into this collaboration can lead to tremendous success. But what makes the intersection of these disciplines so fruitful? Consider just a few of the reasons why it’s essential to have marketing and CX personnel working in close harmony.

7 Reasons for Marketing and CX to Collaborate

1) Collaboration between these two departments can yield comprehensive customer insights.

A team-based approach allows marketing and CX teams to share valuable customer insights, working together from the same data points and buyer personas. CX gathers direct feedback and intel from customers, providing valuable information on their preferences, pain points, and expectations. This information is essential for marketing to develop targeted campaigns that resonate with the audience and deliver a personalized experience.

Imagine a company that makes vacuum cleaners. Customers tend to like the product, but one consistent complaint is that they find it too challenging to change out the attachments. If CX passes this complaint to marketing, the marketing team may create video tutorials to support a better customer experience or even market improvements to the application detachment process.

2) Collaboration ensures consistent messaging across channels.

Additionally, collaboration between these two departments ensures consistent messaging across different touchpoints.

CX provides valuable insights into customer touchpoints and journey stages, allowing marketers to tailor their messaging accordingly. This alignment results in a seamless customer experience, enhancing brand perception and increasing customer trust and loyalty.

To put it even more simply, a collaborative approach ensures that customers hear the same language and receive the same information from their initial research stage through the product purchase. This consistency can be a powerful way to enforce the brand’s integrity.

3) A collaborative approach enhances customer engagement.

Collaborative efforts between marketing and CX enable the delivery of personalized and relevant content to customers. Marketers can optimize content by leveraging SEO, social media, and marketing to meet customer needs and preferences. This facilitates higher levels of engagement, as the content resonates with their interests and addresses their pain points. This generates more conversions and turns more customers into brand advocates.

4) When marketing and CX work together, it facilitates customer satisfaction.

The CX department is ultimately focused on keeping customers satisfied. Surprisingly, marketing can be a huge help here, primarily when the two departments work together.

Here’s why: Integrating SEO, social media marketing, and content marketing within a collaborative strategy enables the creation of valuable and informative content. This content attracts and engages customers and addresses their queries, concerns, and challenges.

Marketing and CX can significantly improve customer satisfaction by providing helpful and relevant information. This kind of teamwork helps customers feel like their needs are met before and after purchasing the product.

5) This collaborative approach can yield higher search engine visibility.

SEO plays a vital role in increasing a brand’s online visibility. By incorporating SEO practices into content creation and distribution, marketers can optimize content to rank higher in search engine results. This helps attract organic traffic, increases brand exposure, and drives potential customers to engage with the brand.

So where does CX come into play? Again, CX can provide insight into the kinds of topics, questions, or pain points that customers want to see addressed. That makes content development more targeted, specific, and relevant, essential for solid SEO.

6) It amplifies brand awareness.

Social media marketing acts as a catalyst for brand awareness. By leveraging social media platforms, marketers can reach a broader audience, engage with customers, and promote brand visibility.

When marketing and CX collaborate, they can craft social media strategies that align with overall marketing goals, resulting in a consistent and impactful brand presence across social channels. Also note that a well-developed social media presence can provide customer support, which helps CX achieve some of its goals.

7) A collaborative approach ensures targeted messaging.

Content marketing allows marketers to deliver targeted and relevant messages to specific customer segments. By understanding customer preferences and pain points through CX insights, marketing can effectively create valuable content that addresses these needs. This approach improves engagement, builds trust, and positions the brand as an authority in the industry.

Additionally, laser-targeted messaging can help marketing teams allocate their resources more effectively. Precise targeting allows marketers to ensure that they are only paying to promote their message to the right consumers, the people most likely to move forward with a purchase or conversion. This is especially important regarding PPC and display advertising, which can grow costly without effective targeting. The data furnished by CX can be an essential component of this targeting.

For the Best Marketing Strategy, Collaboration is Crucial

The bottom line: A harmonious and integrative approach between marketing and CX is essential for a more effective marketing strategy. A genuinely holistic, collaborative approach maximizes the impact of marketing efforts and drives business growth. At the same time, when CX and marketing professionals collaborate, it can help employees feel more seen and supported at each step of their consumer journey.

But what can you do if your marketing and CX teams are siloed or if you don’t know how to align their strategic visions? One option is to work with a marketing consultant who can provide some parameters to facilitate greater collaboration. This may be an essential first step toward a more integrative and impactful marketing approach. Find a digital marketing consultant who can provide a big-picture approach that unites each department around a shared set of goals and objectives.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Jopwell; Pexels; Thank you!

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How Can TQM Empower Employees?

In the present day, there are a myriad of challenges that developing enterprises have to contend with in the pursuit of success, not least of which is the ever-changing needs of the modern consumer. Recent years have brought about a tangible shift in customer preferences, as consumers are placing more importance on experiences with brands than ever before.

In such a climate, companies that boast the best product or service are not guaranteed to win over their competition as they once might have been. Rather, to accommodate modern consumers, businesses must create a cohesive and wholly-gratifying modern customer experience for their consumers. That means achieving excellence company-wide and empowering employees to maximize your organization’s value.

This is where Total Quality Management (TQM) can be a genuine game-changer for your business. 

What is a TQM?

Total Quality Management is a management approach that embodies a holistic view of business success. With TQM, a business strives to achieve an exceptional level of performance in every facet of its operations, on both a macro and micro scale and aims to reach its goals organically by optimizing processes.

At the heart of the TQM philosophy is a strong concept of quality. Those who embrace this approach view quality as something intrinsic rather than superficial. As such, TQM adopters do not seek to create or even achieve quality but rather to embody it and make it a core part of their companies’ identities.

Due to its scope, TQM encompasses a wide variety of principles that serve to foster excellence at a company, from manufacturing and product testing to marketing, sales, and customer service. By putting measures in place to encourage continuous improvement in every area, companies can improve efficiency and achieve greater ROI on their efforts.

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What can TQM do for a business?

TQM can bring a variety of significant benefits to an ambitious, developing enterprise. 

One of the primary benefits is operational efficiency. By creating an internal culture of continuous improvement, a company can iterate on its processes to optimize them over time. This eliminates resource wastage and revenue leakage, which improves the overall performance of the business.

Adopting TQM also encourages companies to embrace a data-driven approach to business. This promotes an analytical mentality and more intelligent, informed decision-making at the top level. By garnering actionable insights from data analysis and incorporating them into future planning, companies can devise more comprehensive business strategies that drive growth and yield greater ROI in the long term. 

Most importantly, TQM helps to produce a high level of customer satisfaction. Through the creation of an improvement culture and the continuous optimization of processes, it’s possible to exceed customer expectations on a routine basis. This result is immense consumer engagement, a positive brand perception, and increased revenue through repeat business and referrals. 

For those who embrace Total Quality Management, the customer is at the top of the totem pole, but is the employees who allow it to stand tall. For the principles of TQM to take root and yield dividends, there must be a high degree of employee involvement at every organizational level. For this reason, employee empowerment is considered one of the core tenets of TQM.

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How can TQM affect employees’ experience and productivity?

When implemented effectively, TQM can have a substantial effect on both the experience and productivity of employees. There are three primary reasons for this:

Firstly, TQM helps to create more effective training and development programs for employees. By consciously seeking out the latest training methods and most advanced onboarding technologies, companies can help employees to acquire new skills and achieve optimal proficiency in their roles. This makes them more efficient and increases employee satisfaction due to an elevated sense of competency.

Secondly, TQM creates a culture of innovation. In the pursuit of organization-wide excellence, a company can create an environment in which employees have the bandwidth to engage in critical thinking and problem-solving. This helps to create a more engaged and dynamic workforce that is continually evolving itself.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, TQM instills a sense of responsibility in employees. By creating a workplace that emphasizes excellence in every aspect, businesses place their evolution in the hands of their employees. This trust helps them to understand that their contributions have value, which boosts morale and performance, and encourage active participation in the improvement culture. The result is a more gratifying employee experience and higher levels of productivity. 

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Final thoughts

Total Quality Management has the potential to revolutionize a business’s output as well as how it evolves over time. By continuously striving to enrich the employee experience, companies can empower their staff and imbue them with a sense of responsibility that enables them to drive optimization organization-wide and bring ever-greater value to customers.

To sustain growth and success in the long term, employee empowerment is a must, and TQM is currently unrivaled in this regard. 

The post How Can TQM Empower Employees? appeared first on ReadWrite.

Business startups from scratch can be overwhelming, but this ultimate guide breaks down the process into manageable steps. Get started on your entrepreneurial journey today.

Beginning a business can be an intriguing and compensating experience, yet it can likewise be overwhelming and overpowering. From starting a marketable strategy to getting financing and sending off your item or administration, many advances are engaged with beginning an effective business.

This ultimate guide will break down the process into manageable steps, helping you to navigate the world of entrepreneurship and get started on your business journey.

Business Startups from Scratch:

Conduct market research and analysis:

Before launching your business, it’s important to conduct thorough market research and analysis to ensure that there is a demand for your product or service. This includes distinguishing your interest group, figuring out their necessities and inclinations, and exploring your opposition.

Additionally, you have to stay up to date with the latest industry trends, emerging technologies, and consumer behavior. A SWOT analysis helps you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, allowing you to make informed business decisions.

By gathering this information, you can develop a better understanding of the market and make informed decisions about your business strategy. You can conduct market research through surveys, focus groups, and online research tools.

Develop a business idea and plan:

The first step in Business startups from scratch is to develop a business idea and plan. This involves identifying a need in the market, researching your target audience, and developing a unique value proposition for your product or service. Determine the most effective business model for your product or service, including pricing, distribution, and revenue streams. Evaluate a financial plan having your startup costs, revenue projections, and cash flow analysis.

Combine all of the above information into a comprehensive business plan that outlines your business idea. Once you have a solid business idea, you can begin to create a business plan that outlines your goals, strategies, and financial projections. Your business plan will serve as a roadmap for your entrepreneurial journey, helping you to stay focused and on track as you launch and grow your business.

Secure funding and create a budget:

Once you have a solid business plan in place, it’s time to secure funding and create a budget. Securing funding and creating a budget are both essential for any startup business plan. By carefully considering different funding sources and creating a detailed budget, you can increase the chances of success for your business startups.

It is important to regularly review and update both the funding and budget plans to ensure they remain relevant and effective in the dynamic business environment. There are many options for funding your business, including loans, grants, and investors. Consider your options carefully and choose the one that best fits your needs and goals.

Once you have secured funding, create a budget that outlines your expenses and revenue projections. This will help you stay on track financially and make informed decisions about your business operations. Remember to review and adjust your budget as needed regularly.

Register your business startups by choosing a suitable business structure:

Before officially launching your business, you must choose a legal structure and register your business with the appropriate government agencies. Registering your business is an important step in launching your venture. One of the key decisions you will need to make when registering is choosing a suitable business structure.

The most common business structures are sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), and corporation. Each structure has its advantages and disadvantages, so it’s important to research and choose the one that best fits your business goals and needs.

Once you have chosen a structure, you must register your business startup with your state or local government and obtain any necessary licenses and permits. This will ensure that your business is operating legally and can protect you from potential legal issues in the future.

Business startups by establishing an online presence and building a strong brand:

Building a strong brand and establishing an online presence is crucial for any business startup, especially in today’s digital age. Your brand is what sets you apart from your competitors and helps customers recognize and remember your business. Start by creating a logo and choosing a color scheme representing your brand’s values and personality. Then, establish your online presence by creating a website and social media accounts.

Ensure your website is user-friendly and includes important information about your business, such as your products or services, pricing, and contact information. Use social media to engage with your audience, share valuable content, and promote your brand.

Consistency is key when it comes to building your brand and establishing your online presence, so make sure your messaging and visuals are consistent across all platforms.

Conclusion:

Finally, Business startups from scratch can be a challenging but rewarding endeavor. With proper planning and execution, it is possible to turn a great idea into a successful venture. The ultimate guide for Business startups from scratch has provided a comprehensive roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs.

The guide emphasized the importance of conducting thorough market research, creating a solid business plan, and identifying funding sources. It helps to establish a legal structure.

It also highlighted the significance of building a solid brand, developing a marketing strategy, and hiring the right team.

Continuous improvement in the business is possible through feedback and data analysis. At the same time, Business startups from Scratch are not a cup of tea. So, it is important to remember that failures and setbacks are part of the journey.

Inner Image Photo Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

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During the pandemic, the ways we accessed and managed our money transformed. To be sure, in-person banking was dropping in popularity even before the start of the pandemic, while digital platforms were seeing a slow and steady rise: About 4 million users joined the digital banking world each year between 2017 and 2019, according to Statista.

Though their popularity was beginning to wane, brick-and-mortar branches were undoubtedly still very much a part of many consumers’ financial routines. When the pandemic hit, the balance of digital to traditional banking began a rapid shift. In 2020, 52% of bank customers went to branches to manage their money (or were branch-dependent), according to a J.D. Power survey. Only two years later, in 2022, more than 65% of U.S. bank customers were using digital banking services, per Bankrate.

The Challenges Digital Banking Poses to Consumers

With this evolution in omnichannel banking come unique obstacles and opportunities — especially for older adults. While more people in this age demographic are now using digital technology than ever before, a study by the Pew Research Center indicates that 25% of adults aged 65 or older don’t use the internet, 36% don’t have home broadband, and 39% don’t own smartphones. Moreover, MX’s 2022 report on digital and mobile banking trends states that only 39% of Baby Boomers use a mobile app to manage their financial accounts.

When this is considered, along with the 30% of American adults who struggle with technology and the economic barriers that prevent tech adoption, it becomes obvious that the digitization of banking presents challenges to many people.

Adoption & Implementation

All change requires some sort of effort and adjustment, no matter how big the benefits might be on the other side. The widespread adoption and promotion of digital banking is no exception, but it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way.

Older adults, for example, often have to overcome ageism in digital tech. Because new digital devices and services generally aren’t designed with their needs in mind, they may find digital banking to be counterintuitive, overcomplicated, or physically difficult to use.

More universally, there’s also the challenge of pleasing customers. Though consumers are using digital financial tools more than ever, their level of satisfaction with those services might have dropped, according to the J.D.

Power survey mentioned above, digital-only customers were logging lower satisfaction scores than those who visited their local branches or used a combination of digital and in-person banking. It seems that even the convenience of digital transactions can’t always match the benefits of an attentive and helpful human associate.

Building Trust

Without the human element, trust can be a major issue. Less than one-third of people surveyed by Accenture in 2020 said they trusted banks “a lot” to look after their financial well-being. That’s compared to 43% who said the same only two years ago, not to mention the growing distrust resulting from the recent failure of the Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, March 10.

However, the tide might be starting to turn for digital financial services. With the benefits of lower fees and increasingly lower barriers to access, it’s perhaps not surprising that 61% of traditional bank users reported being somewhat or highly likely to switch to an online-only bank soon, according to the same Bankrate research mentioned above.

How Can Banks Offer Excellent Experiences to All Customers Post-Pandemic?

The tangible experience of walking into a banking branch and interacting with a human being might seem a world away, but it remains the norm for many people. Members of older generations, particularly, might rely on that physical experience of attention and appreciation as they navigate their financial lives.

Here are a few effective ways to integrate human touches into excellent customer experience for consumers of all age groups:

1. Remember the benefits of human interaction.

People haven’t lost the basic need for in-person, face-to-face interaction. Building human interaction into your digital experiences helps customers adapt, learn, and trust. Whether that trust comes from a highly advanced, intuitive chatbot connecting customers to personalized messaging on your website or features that direct digital users toward real people who can help them solve their problems.

It is essential that all businesses today understand that attentive customer service is more important than ever.

2. Don’t let up on security.

Security challenges and risks litter digital banking’s future with obstacles. Increased use of mobile platforms and digital payments has upped the risk level regarding cybersecurity. Many customers now turning to digital banking are from older generations: less tech-savvy people who feel compelled to join younger generations online for fear of being left behind.

For these people, ramping up cybersecurity is even more critical. Anti-phishing methods and education (and the adoption of mandatory two-factor authentication) could help protect even more vulnerable users.

3. Prioritize accessibility.

Make your digital banking service as accessible as possible so that everyone can use it, no matter their digital knowledge. To that end, the University of Wisconsin-Madison recommends that websites provide captions, large font sizes, screen readers, screen magnification, and fast-loading web pages. You could also offer in-person instruction to customers who need additional help.

Sometimes it can feel as though finance’s digital transformation has happened too rapidly for customers’ expectations to catch up. Fortunately, that catch-up work is happening now. As customers from all generations come to grips with mobile and online banking and what they can offer, banking companies can ease the learning burden by delivering secure and excellent personalized banking experiences. Don’t wait to get started.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Photo by rupixen; Unsplash; Thank you!

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Entrepreneurs and executives are scrambling to recession-proof their businesses this year amid a looming economic downturn and a still-tight labor market. Among many other strategies, they want to reduce costs with Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

BPOs are not a new phenomenon. Companies have outsourced non-core functions like accounting, legal, HR, and customer service for decades. Each BPO vertical is itself a multibillion-dollar, international industry.

But recessions typically see firms that already use BPOs double down on the practice, as firms that haven’t yet taken the plunge to begin experimenting with it. As the business community prepares for a likely downturn later this year or next, we’re already seeing a surge of interest in customer service outsourcing in particular — part of a broader scramble to keep increasingly sophisticated, price-and-quality-sensitive customers happy. Because of this, call center BPOs are in very high demand right now.

Not all third-party call centers are the same, though. They best utilize rigorous quality assurance (QA) practices and tools to improve agent performance and boost customer satisfaction scores (CSATs). Though they’re scattered worldwide — from the Philippines to the San Joaquin Valley — many members of this “call center elite” have one thing in common: they and their clients use MaestroQA’s powerful call center QA software to measure and shape their outputs.

Call Center QA Matters

Businesses use call center BPOs in large part to improve or expand existing customer support activities to focus on customer retention. For resource-strapped enterprises, having an external customer support partner is generally better than attempting to serve customers with in-house resources. Call center BPOs:

• Have economies of scale that generally produce significant cost savings vs. internal solutions
• Allow brands to expand customer support into new time zones with less internal friction, for example, by requiring employees to work overnight.
• Enable rapid scaling during peak seasons, ahead of new product launches, and in response to demand spikes in general
• Provide access to talented staff despite tight onshore labor markets
• Provide multilingual support beyond the English/Spanish binary

But they’re not perfect. Call center BPO clients regularly encounter issues like:

• Cultural barriers between call center staff and internal CX teams
• Lack of buy-in or “team mentality.”
• Steep agent learning curve due to complicated or inadequate training materials
• Poor QA protocols that result in unacceptably low agent performance
• Lack of visibility in performance metrics

MaestroQA helps companies that use call center BPOs — and many third-party call center providers themselves — address all these issues and more through rigorous QA protocols, focused CX insights, and targeted workflow automation. All are working toward a unified goal: measurably improving customer service outcomes and boosting all-important customer retention rates.

Simple Changes Strengthen In-House CX Teams

We discuss two “external” MaestroQA success stories below. But first, we acknowledge that not all businesses need third-party customer support providers. Some have the resources to stand up and build out in-house CX teams.

However, these teams run into the same issues as external CX partners. These issues may become apparent more quickly and present with more urgency if these internal teams’ leaders lack experience with CX best practices and troubleshooting.

This means that responsive QA is equally important for internal customer support, if not more so.

ClassPass, an online fitness provider with tens of thousands of workout videos in its subscription library, learned this firsthand thanks to MaestroQA.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, surging demand for at-home workouts stretched ClassPass’ lean CX team to the breaking point. CX Enablement Lead, Sydney McDowell, examined the company’s existing customer service QA protocols and identified a host of problems. From an overly subjective grading rubric to a shockingly low ticket-tagging accuracy rate to a time-consuming cancellation process that wastes thousands of hours of agent time each year.

Expansion and Modernization

As CX issues mushroomed and customer satisfaction slumped, these issues posed a potentially existential threat to ClassPass at the worst possible time. So McDowell turned to MaestroQA to expand ticket auditing, modernize its QA grading rubric, and automate its cancellation process.

The results were impressive. Email ticket-tagging accuracy jumped from 58% to 88%, chat ticket-tagging accuracy increased by 20%, customer retention rose to 83%, and cancellation-related chat time dropped from an astonishing 6,250 days in 2019 to 0 days in 2022 thanks to a fully automated process.

Not only this, but McDowell was later able to adopt MaestroQA in her position with Handy to centrally track and measure the performance of their outsourced call centers. Through their partnership, Handy benefited from MaestroQA’s reporting platform, gaining valuable insights into BPO performance. This garners reliable quality assurance metrics.

Streamlining CX Grading and Auditing Processes

ClassPass isn’t the only rapidly growing subscription-based company that has leveraged MaestroQA to refine its customer service architecture and boost customer retention.

WatchGang, which curates high-end watches and accessories for a discerning member base, used MaestroQA to standardize and customize its customer support agent scorecards. MaestroQA’s flexible scoring options allowed WatchGang to tailor its scorecards in a way that made sense for its agents. Its easy-to-understand rubrics enabled faster, “stickier” feedback that agents could easily digest. And its automated grading assignments fed tickets to graders based on their personal strengths. This was to reduce friction and increase accuracy during the grading process.

Meanwhile, project management software provider Monday.com turned to MaestroQA to make its already well-functioning customer support department even more efficient and responsive.

Monday.com was renowned in the project management space for its 10-minute average ticket response time — part of a best-in-class service level agreement (SLA) — but bogged down by long “average handle time” (AHT) on open tickets. In other words, its agents were spending too long on the phone or chatting with customers.

MaestroQA streamlined and sped up Monday.com’s ticket grading process, allowing it to complete 48% more audits without allocating additional resources to the process. This generated insights that previously went unnoticed. This allowed Monday.com’s CX team to iterate its way to a 30% AHT reduction (from more than 24 minutes to about 16 minutes).

The end result was that Monday.com was able to stick to its 10-minute SLA without compromising interaction quality or outcomes once it did make contact with customers. That, in turn, helped it keep its competitive edge as the project management industry’s rapid pandemic-fueled growth cooled and larger competitors circled.

Great CX Is No Longer Optional

The past few years have shown us that companies are only as good as their customer support infrastructure. If your CX team isn’t there when your customers need it most, customer retention will suffer. Then they’ll simply go somewhere else.

The importance of customers is true in the best of times — and even more so during economic downturns. As we look ahead to a possible recession in late 2023 or 2024, best-in-class CX will be more important than ever.

MaestroQA is gearing up to support its clients through the coming tough times. What’s your brand doing to prepare?

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Pexels; Thank you!

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The ongoing effort to heat and cool homes isn’t a new phenomenon in the HVAC market. On the contrary, it’s been around for decades — and, technically speaking, it’s a practice that has been in development for centuries. The first residential air conditioners stretch back to the early years of the 20th century. 

While the HVAC market is well-established, though, it isn’t immune to the effects of time. The market has had to adjust to the needs and expectations of its customers over the years. 

It has done this to a certain degree. For instance, modern heating and cooling units are much more efficient, reflecting the desire of modern consumers to minimize their carbon footprints. But, by and large, the predictable and limited scope of the HVAC line of business has meant change has taken place at a slow and steady pace — until now. 

HVACDirect.com is a company that is amping up the evolution of HVAC. It is revolutionizing and reimagining how home heating and cooling take place. Here are a handful of the biggest ways the burgeoning brand is pioneering the future of this venerable industry.

An Enterprise Committed to Good Price Points

HVAC is an expensive aspect of property ownership. Along with ongoing maintenance and utility bills, the average cost for a new HVAC system typically ranges between $7,000 and $12,000. This is a sizable expense and one that many homeowners struggle to manage.

HVACDirect.com has met this concern on multiple fronts. First, the company is fiercely committed to maintaining competitive wholesale pricing on its site. The markups on each unit are minimal due to the fact that they are working directly with the end consumer. 

Along with its consistently low pricing, the online HVAC brand helps its customers find the best deal for each situation. This starts with rebates, many of which are openly available to research and compare right on the company’s website.

Third-party financing is also available. The company works to avoid unnecessary loan fees by partnering with Bread as a way to provide easy, 0% financing for those who can’t afford to pay for their HVAC purchase in one lump sum. At the end of the day, an alternative option to the traditional HVAC purchasing model has been transforming the HVAC market.

A Straight-Forward, Transparent Company Building Trust

Access to information and professional support is the number one way that HVACDirect.com is changing the tone within its industry. Traditionally, in the HVAC market, experts cloak their services in vagueness. They make complicated claims and unfounded quotes, all based on unexplained assessments. 

For instance, consider a scenario where, as a homeowner, you ask an HVAC professional for a quote to replace an old, broken oil furnace with an alternative, upgraded unit. After looking at the existing unit, a traditional contractor might start to talk about things like high-efficiency models and the cost of propane versus electric heat. They might provide limited information about the need to run new PVC vent pipes and drop just enough carbon monoxide knowledge to make the homeowner nervous. 

From there, they’ll offer a quote that includes a markup for their services that is nearly impossible to assess. That is unless the homeowner goes through the rigmarole of tracking down several more contractors and going through the same hassle just to compare their quotes.

In comparison, HVACDirect.com doesn’t hide its expertise behind complex terminology and service smokescreens. They have resources and tools (like an “Easy System Selector”) that equip homeowners with the knowledge to choose exactly what they need without any extras. Their team helps American families make important decisions in relation to their home’s heating and cooling and reduces the strain on their pocketbook.

The brand’s team members also prioritize expert customer service from the moment someone arrives on their site. In fact, those team members aren’t just your run-of-the-mill outsourced call center employees. They aren’t even just stateside, in-house employees. 

Customer Service Approach

HVACDirect.com takes great pride in providing customer service via a team of HVAC experts. These are individuals who are as versed in HVAC knowledge as they are capable of handling customer questions and complaints. This white glove treatment immediately gives the impression of a positive, knowledgeable experience, even before a customer has their questions answered.

The brand even lists out its own standards regarding expectations consumers should have when hiring an HVAC expert. The list includes things like:

• Working with individuals with genuine HVAC knowledge.
• Finding support that persists past the point of sale.
• Providing competitive pricing and financial options (more on that below).
• Treating each customer interaction as an opportunity to serve.

These standards are foundational elements that have helped HVACDirect.com stand out in an industry known for ambiguous answers and shady customer service.

A Brand Offering Quantity and Quality Units

The other factor that sets HVACDirect.com apart in the HVAC market is its willingness to include a wide selection of products. It isn’t sold out to a certain manufacturer or wholesale business partner. 

On the contrary, the brand’s website is a repository of different HVAC equipment options. For example, just on its ductless mini-split page, the company has models from ACiQ, Stealth, Mitsubishi, MRCOOL, Perfect Aire, Fujitsu, Daikin, and Gree. It even has the option to shop by brand if a customer (rather than a contractor) has a certain preference.

This wide range of options allows anyone to answer both residential and commercial HVAC needs. They can find units for studio apartments, 10,000-square-foot structures, and anything in between. And the brand’s on-site resources and support network (outlined above) are always there to help customers decipher between the myriad of available options.

HVACDirect.com Is Reimagining HVAC

The HVAC industry has been slow to adjust to the demands of the modern world. From sustainability to personalization, information to affordability, there are many factors that modern consumers expect, even when shopping for home heating and cooling systems.

HVACDirect.com is a company that is accommodating the needs and expectations of modern consumers. From professional support to quality products in plentiful selection to flexible financing options, it is a pioneering brand that is finding tremendous success as it revolutionizes an ancient industry that is overdue for an upgrade.

Featured Image: by Curtis Adams; Pexels; Thanks!

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Entrepreneurship is synonymous with innovation and risk-taking, but it can be a challenging journey filled with obstacles and challenges. However, the rise of no-code technology has opened up new doors for entrepreneurs to take their ideas from concept to reality without spending countless hours coding.

No-code is a powerful software development approach that allows entrepreneurs to create, customize, and deploy software applications without the need to write any code. This approach is becoming increasingly popular among entrepreneurs, allowing them to create software solutions quickly and efficiently without needing expensive development teams or specialized coding skills.

According to Gartner, LC/NC tools will power more than 70% of new apps by 2025. Compared to 2020, fewer than 25% of apps used LC/NC platforms; that’s a 45% increase.

If you’re an entrepreneur considering no code for your business, this roadmap will guide you through determining if it is the right fit for your needs.

12-Step Roadmap to Mastering No-Code High-Income Skills

This 12-Step Roadmap to Mastering No-Code High-Income Skills is designed specifically for entrepreneurs who are looking to streamline their processes and increase their income potential through no-code technology. Get ready to take your entrepreneurship game to the next level and learn how to become a no-code master.

Step 1: Research the benefits and future of no-code

The first step in learning no-code is to research the benefits of this approach. No-code has many advantages, such as:

• • It’s accessible to anyone with a basic understanding of software development
  • It’s faster and more efficient than traditional software development

• It’s more cost-effective than traditional software development
• It’s more scalable than traditional software development

Step 2: Research different no-code platforms

The first step in learning about no-code is to research different no-code platforms. Many different no-code platforms are available, each with its own features and capabilities. Some of the most popular no-code platforms include:

• Wix
• Quixy
• Shopify
• Webflow
• Airtable

Research each platform and determine which one best fits your business needs.

Step 3: Identify your business needs 

Before determining if no-code is right for your business, you need to identify your business needs. This involves understanding the necessary software solutions and the features and capabilities needed to support them.”

Step 4: Evaluate the capabilities of different no-code platforms

Once you’ve identified your business needs, evaluate the capabilities of different no-code platforms. Compare the features and capabilities of each platform to your business needs to determine which one is the best fit. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What software solutions do I need to create?
• How complex are these solutions?
• How frequently do these solutions need updates and maintenance?
• How much budget do I have for software development?

Step 5: Decide if no-code is the right fit for your business. 

Based on your research, assessment, and testing results, decide whether no-code fits your business. It’s essential to research different no-code platforms and test them out with a free trial to see if they meet your business needs. By considering all these factors and assessing the results, you’ll be able to determine whether no-code is the right fit for your business.

Step 6: Consider the cost 

No-code platforms typically offer a range of pricing plans, so consider the cost of each platform and how it fits into your budget.

Step 7: Test the platform 

Most no-code platforms offer a free trial, so take advantage of this opportunity to test the platform and see if it fits your business.

Step 8: Evaluate the ease of use 

No-code platforms are designed & created to be easy to use, but some are easier to use than others. Evaluate each platform’s ease of use to determine which fits your business needs best.

Step 9: Consider the scalability

Consider the scalability of each platform and how it will support your business as it grows. Ensure that your chosen platform can handle large amounts of traffic and data.

Step 10: Evaluate the customer support & look for integration 

Consider the customer support offered by each platform and determine if it is adequate for your business. Also, check out each platform’s integrations and determine if it can integrate with your existing tools and platforms.

Step 11: Create a simple software solution & assess the results 

Once you’ve learned the platform basics, create a simple software solution. It can be something as basic as a landing page or a basic website. And will allow you to practice using the platform and see if it’s a good fit for your business needs.

Once you’ve created a simple software solution, assess the results. Ask yourself the following questions:

• How long it took to design the software solution?
• How easy was it to create the software solution?
• How customizable was the software solution?
• How satisfied are you with the results?

Step 12: Make a decision & start minting dollars. 

After considering all of the above factors, make a decision about which no-code platform is the best fit for your business.

No-code products can help entrepreneurs make money by providing a fast and efficient way to create software solutions that address customer pain points.

With no code, you can create customized software solutions that address specific customer needs and pain points, such as streamlined workflow, automation of repetitive tasks or easy access to data.

Additionally, to make money from their software solutions, entrepreneurs can use no-code products to sell them as a service or product to customers. They have a couple of options here: they can offer the product as a subscription-based model, where customers pay a recurring charge to access and use the product — or they can use a one-time purchase model, where customers pay a single fee to access and use the product.

Entrepreneurs can create a successful and profitable business using no-code by addressing customer pain points and finding creative ways to monetize their software solutions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, No-code is a powerful software development approach that allows entrepreneurs to create, customize, and deploy software applications without the need to write any code. However, before diving into no-code — it is crucial to research different no-code platforms, identify business needs, and evaluate the capabilities of different no-code platforms.

You will want to consider the cost, test the platform, and evaluate the ease of use, scalability, and customer support. Begin to look for integrations and make a decision that fits the business needs.

No-code can save entrepreneurs significant money and give them more control over the development process. Before using no-code products entrepreneurs should ensure that it’s the right fit for their business. Entrepreneurs must evaluate their options carefully and determine if this approach aligns with their goals and strategy.

By following this roadmap, entrepreneurs can ensure that they make an informed decision about using no-code for their business.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev; Pexels; Thank you!

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Do you have a rental property? Are you looking for ways to make it more attractive to tenants who might have many options in your community, city, or state? One way to do so is by offering more value for the rent they pay — and you can achieve this with smart home technology.

According to one survey, up to 57.4 million households in the United States are actively using smart home devices this year. This is up 6.7% compared to 2021, when the tally of households actively using smart home technology was 53.8 million.

If you want to make your rental property a more attractive option for tenants, include smart home technology. Keep reading to see some smart home options worth considering.

Smart Home Tech Investment Options

Smart Thermostat

If your tenants pay for utilities, they’ll be interested in units with smart thermostats. If they are away for large chunks of the day, they can set their smart thermostats so that the temperature isn’t higher or lower than it needs to be. When they’re away at work during the winter, they can program the smart thermostat so that the temperature isn’t any warmer than it needs to be. It’ll be possible to program it so that the temperature rises when they return from work.

Energy Star notes that people can save about $50 annually using their smart thermostats. That might not sound like a whole lot. But with inflation driving up the cost of living, every saving opportunity counts. The tenants for your rental unit will appreciate being able to save money.

Video Doorbell

Another smart home technology to consider for your rental unit is a video doorbell. Occupants will have an extra layer of security since they’ll be able to check who is at the door without having to walk to the door physically. Whether they’re in bed, in the living room, in the kitchen, or away from the rental unit, they’ll be able to check who is at the door.

A video doorbell can also deter would-be crooks from burglary attempts. Thieves prefer easy targets, so seeing a video doorbell that can capture them in the act is enough to dissuade most bad actors. Equipping your rental unit with a video camera could appeal to tenants. They’ll feel safer, which could be enough to differentiate your rental property from other properties.

Smart Home Security System

It’s always been a good idea to install a sound home security system. But a smart home security system is another matter entirely. Such a setup will include various physical electronic components that work together to safeguard your rental property. It can consist of the following:

• Smart security cameras
• Motion sensors that detect motion and send notifications if motion is detected
• Glass break sensors that will send alerts if glass is broken
• Entry sensors to detect whenever someone enters or leaves the rental unit
• An alarm to warn of any potential danger and potentially frighten off crooks

Smart Wireless Camera

It’s essential to remember that wireless cameras can come as part of a complete home security system or as a stand-alone option without the alarm, the keypad, and other components. Sometimes wireless cameras can simply be about providing peace of mind for tenants. So, if they want to check the house’s perimeter without going outside at night, they can do so via wireless cameras. All they’ll need is access to their computer, tablet, or laptop.

Another reason to consider installing wireless cameras is if your tenants have pets. If your tenants are out and about, they might take comfort in being able to check in on their pets. Wireless cameras ensure that they can check in from wherever they are. Furthermore, installing wireless cameras without all the other components will be a more cost-effective option.

Voice-Controlled Smart Speaker

Did you know that the worldwide smart speaker market is expected to grow to $6.5 billion this year and, according to IMARC Group, could skyrocket to $27.5 billion by 2028?

According to the research firm, smart speakers refer to wireless, internet-enabled devices that are equipped with integrated voice assistants that help people with everyday tasks. Perhaps you’ve already used one. They have voice recognition technology, so they decipher and respond to voice commands. For instance, if you have the Amazon Echo Dot voice-controlled smart speaker with the Alexa voice assistant, you can ask something like the following:

“Alexa, what’s the forecast for tomorrow?”

The voice assistant will then respond with the weather forecast for your area.

But voice assistants don’t just provide weather updates, as useful as that can be. They can also play music, stream live news, set alarms, answer questions, read e-books, set reminders and timers, and more. You can also use a voice-controlled smart speaker, according to IMARC, for GPS navigation and even to control smart home devices. So, the use cases are many.

Consider voice-controlled smart speakers if you want to offer tenants a tool that will offer convenience and functionality. They’re relatively inexpensive and do provide value. All you need is internet access to offer tenants the benefits of voice-control smart speakers.

Smart Smoke Detector

Whether it’s your primary residence or a rental property, you’ll want to protect your investment. One way you can do so is by installing smart smoke alarms. It’s certainly a good idea to install them in your rental units. When smart smoke alarms detect smoke or carbon monoxide, they can send alerts to your tenants’ smartphones.

Tenants will also be able to control smart smoke alarms remotely. It can be a game-changer by providing an extra layer of security for tenants and their pets, if you allow pets in your investment properties. Safety should be a priority. And tools like smart smoke detectors can help protect your tenants and your rental properties as well.

Smart Plug

Another smart feature for your rental properties is a smart plug. When you install smart plugs in your rental units, you’ll transform the way tenants interact with their appliances, even if they’re someplace other than home. Smart plugs are plugged into regular electrical outlets. They’re then controlled by apps that tenants can use to control their appliances or anything else plugged into the smart plug. So, if they have a standing lamp plugged into one, they can have it automatically switch itself on at night or off in the morning.

That’s not only about convenience; it’s also about saving money. Smart plugs can help tenants be more responsible about their energy consumption. They can choose when and how long appliances or plug-in lamps are on. If tenants are responsible for their own utilities, then offering smart plugs will be an even more appreciated feature. If you are responsible, then you’ll do the saving. But when you consider how cost-effective smart plugs are, you’ll realize they’re worth buying.

Smart Lightbulb

Smart bulbs are easy to install. In fact, you can install them the same way you would install any traditional lightbulb. So, it’s one of the more cost-effective smart home upgrades you can pursue for your rental properties. If you do some research, you’ll find that smart bulbs can last for 25,000+ hours of use. That’s a long time by any stretch of the imagination. This means your tenants will save money over the long run if you install smart bulbs. These options are also better for the environment since they don’t have mercury, as do fluorescent bulbs. If you can save money while doing the best thing for the environment, that’s a win-win.

Just keep in mind that tenants will need to download an app to use smart bulbs. Once they have it on their smartphones or tablets, they’ll be able to operate the smart bulbs whether they’re at home or on the road.

Smart Garage Opener

If you rent out a home with a garage, there’s a good chance that a garage opener is already in place. But is it a smart garage opener? If it’s not, it’s worth upgrading to get the features that come with a smart garage opener. A smart garage opener won’t just open and close your garage door. Instead, the unit will send activity alerts directly to your tenant’s smartphone. The tenant will also be able to determine who can have access to the garage. A smart garage opener can also alert your tenant if the garage door is inadvertently left open. That can be a game-changer since leaving a garage door open by mistake can lead to problems like theft or even worse.

And That’s Not All…

It’s possible to get many other features as part of a smart home security system. Your tenants can keep tabs on what’s going on inside and outside their rental units no matter where they are. They can set things up so they’re alerted if there’s a problem. If a service provider monitors the system, then the authorities can be dispatched as required.

These are some of the things you do to make your investment property more attractive to renters. If you want more tips on how to offer people what they want as a property owner, consult with a property manager experienced at helping property owners to find suitable tenants.

The right property manager can improve the investment property ownership experience with smart home technology. You’ll get help with necessary maintenance and repairs, updating your rental property so it’s competitive in the rental market, finding suitable tenants, and more.

Featured Image: Pixabay; Pexels.com. Thank you!

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Gone are the days when customers stand in long bank queues. Previously, the bank customer would stand in line, almost longer than the time they took to visit with their soul mate or better half.

Today we shop where we trust and feel esteemed. We, as customers, will pay for the prime help and great experience. Interestingly the parallel goes with our financial system as well.

In any case, what is a good experience in finance? What’s the distinction between a decent financial experience and an incredible one? Banks will offer a wide range of justifications for why they are superior to their rivals. However, customers get to make the judgment here.

So, important CX addresses the most crucial customer experience issues and assists you with understanding the importance of giving the best financial experience by your bank or credit association.

What is a good financial customer experience?

Banking is the same as industries in the service domain. Not all customers might be happy with their experience with a bank representative or a particular service. So, the better service you provide, the better benefits you reap.

So, an acceptable definition can be as follows:

“A good customer experience in the finance industry is a perception of your customers across all channels, as long as the customers have similar experiences across all the banking platforms, be it a physical visit, mobile banking, or net banking .”

A sound banking experience may be challenging to put into words. However, it is not difficult to notice. One must have a significant association with banks that make your life smooth through computerized channels (e.g., net banking, mobile banking).

Why is a good customer experience critical for banks and credit unions?

Banks were the most local establishments, and individuals entrusted them with their cash and lives. However, things have drastically changed a great deal now.

The development of technologies, especially in online shopping, and mobile applications, have made numerous ways in which banks’ role have increased, and the customer experience in finance has been the top priority. Especially in payment gateways and acceptance of multiple payment options.

Do you know why? Since customers are more linked than ever, they’re more empowered, with more choices for them to browse.

The following are five fundamental justifications for why your bank or credit association might be struggling to provide outstanding customer experiences:

1. Banks are not in contact with their customers. They seldom talk with their customers and lack an information-driven approach to understanding what makes their customers satisfied or discontent with the bank.
2. Banks depend on a one-size-fits-all methodology. Due to the absence of individual touch, banks will generally use similar methods for every one of their customers, irrespective of their monetary circumstances or nature.
3. Banks are not giving significant data with flawless timing. If you don’t have the haziest idea about your customer’s requirements, you can’t offer them meaningful data.
4. Banks neglect to perceive people’s inclinations. For example, a few clients need to visit a branch office when they have an issue, and others like to do it online or through a mobile application.
5. Banks need everything as quickly as possible! Private sector banks have turned things around in dealing with customers. Their fast and beyond satisfactory customer service has hit the nail. They have used “quick resolution” to attract customers, loyalty, and retention.

Improving Customer Experience in the finance industry

Banks and other BFSI institutions have been swiftly improving their customer experience more in recent memory than ever. Especially after how the financial customer venture has changed post the pandemic. Also, finance as an industry has customers experience patterns and difficulties – from administrative to best security practices.

The following are a few ways to further develop the customer experience in the finance industry covering BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) sectors.

1. Streamline and facilitate the customer onboarding procedure

One of the vital variables in conveying a superior customer experience is to consider a quick and hassle-free onboarding process.

By and large, banks’ incapability to offer a completely online account opening experience keeps them from taking out the requirement for customers to visit a branch during account opening.

2. Quick web-based payment experience

There is a gradual decrease in cash transactions. Moreover, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, customers avoid face-to-face interactions in favor of virtual conversations. Therefore, sending money through net banking and mobile applications is the new normal today.

It is critical to ensure you are prepared for your rivals who use mobile services to a great extent. You can do this by:

• quicker and more secure handling of payments
• Consistent and well-planned user interface (UI) for better user experience (UX)
• Giving more instantaneous notifications and better dealing with blunders

3. Customer and Employee feedback needs to be more inclusive

Feedback about customer experience in the finance industry is one of the best ways to assist organizations with further developing their customer experience. By incorporating live talks with employee performance surveys, associations comprehend how to help their customers better.

For example, suppose an employee is evaluated unsatisfactorily for missing out on an essential item highlighting demand from a client. In that case, the organization can pull up that specific talk record and transcription of the chat and analyze precisely where the breakdown happened and how the problem can be solved. This permits organizations to address their customers’ interests more efficiently. The following are a few things banks and credit associations can adjust accordingly.

1. Provide better alternatives in the mobile application to directly connect to the support staff.

2 Getting rid of the old “Hold” music and better shift to the new Interactive Voice Response (IVR).

3. Customers must know about the time at which their query will be resolved. Like their place in the queue or the time they will get a response.

4. Create an authentic omnichannel customer experience

The Knowledge Management (KM) practice is the most valuable asset to the customer and the BFSIs at this moment to enhance their CX.

By implementing a knowledge base platform, more freedom is given to the customers in getting more self-service and fewer interventions. With the best processes in place to manage the knowledge, you have the best Knowledge Base (KB) to address the customer’s queries in the best possible ways. Therefore with the robust KM in use, the BFSI will get the most authentic CX.

5. Provide customized experiences across customer journeys

Every customer has a unique inclination and assumption. You want to provide the best systems for building a customized financial encounter as a bank. The best and, by far, the only way to do this is by grasping your customer’s journey and feedback.

To do this, you want to deeply analyze customer interaction across your branches, call centers, ATMs, and web-based financial framework. You can even provide personalized service at each step of their interaction with your bank. One can direct an ordinary survey of your digital channels for more valuable data.

Act according to the customer feedback, both positive and negative; Center around the necessities of your customers; use the information to quantify your customer experience execution against industry benchmarks. Then, use the data to recognize potential chances further to enhance your customer experience.

6. Be adaptable to change and update your services to match evolving needs of customers

Open banking is a customer-driven model that catalyzes people to command their financials and begin clearing banking and investment issues. The open financial revolution is centered around enabling customers’ direct access to their information and giving them unprecedented decision-making capabilities and flexibility in communicating with their banks.

The customary financial model will be outdated if banks are slow in answering new requests of customers who need absolute transparency in their finances. In addition, the customers anticipate that their banks should be able to handle third-party products and services-related administration flawlessly.

• Put customers at the center of your business: Let the customers understand how their finances and data are utilized. And how customers can take command of it by opting for net banking or mobile banking facility.
• Simplicity is the key: Speak with clear data that assists customers with understanding how they can manage your item or administration and how it functions.
• Try not to fail to focus on security: Consider security gambles while connecting with third-party providers, for example, extortion alarms and information protection concerns, and ensure you’re ready for all safety elements.

Conclusion

Being customer-driven ought to go beyond verbal communication. This is how one builds longer and better associations with your customers. It is vital to living up to the assumptions of customers by giving frictionless services across all channels by being

• Profoundly context-oriented and pertinent to the customer
• Real-time assessment to furnish items and administrative services
• Broadcasted omnichannel presence
• Provide 24/7 support for customers’ questions

Whether your BFSI is a big player or a newcomer, it must put resources into making an excellent customer experience for new and old customers.

Featured Image Credit: Pexels; Thank you!

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Over the past decade, the list of industries that haven’t been transformed by technological innovation is far shorter than the list of those that have. But many are surprised to learn that technology is also now transforming the traditional insurance industry as well.

That’s right, insurance is no exception. Historically operating as a traditional, relationship-driven business where handshakes and reputation mattered more than apps and algorithms, anyone who has shopped for an insurance policy recently knows that insurance is exceedingly more technologically advanced — and tech-dependent — than before.

You don’t have to look far for evidence. From the inexorable rise of digital-first policy production to the increasingly powerful self-service apps that facilitate policy adjustments and claims with little input from agents or insurance representatives, technology permeates the industry.

As in other industries, we already see winners and losers emerging from this disruptive process. While insurance agents’ and brokers’ net premium share has actually increased in the past five to 10 years — from 50.6% of all property and casualty lines in 2017 to 53.8% in 2021, according to the Insurance Information Institute — the most successful agencies and brokerages have enthusiastically evolved with the times. Those that haven’t are feeling the squeeze.

One of the industry’s greatest examples of this change in action is Hamilton Insurance Agency, one of the nation’s largest independent insurance brokers which is celebrating its 40th year in operation this year.

Here’s how Hamilton Insurance Agency is blending technology and tradition to improve product quality, enhance the client experience, and emerge stronger from one of the insurance industry’s most challenging periods.

Rethinking the Insurance Broker Role — No “Disruption” Necessary

First, Hamilton is reimagining the insurance broker role. Founder Alan J. Zuccari and his senior leadership team believe that to win their clients’ trust, agents and brokers must do more than simply sell insurance policies. They need to  be true partners to their clients.

Client partnerships depend on Hamilton’s long standing relationships with insurance carriers and its fine-tuned approach to high-touch client service. A people-first approach, in other words.

But that’s only part of the story. Hamilton Insurance Agency also leverages proprietary technology and analytics to create customized solutions for its clients — not just to fill their present insurance needs, but to help them anticipate how their needs might change in the future and how they can mitigate risk beyond merely carrying enough insurance coverage.

This comprehensive approach is particularly useful for Hamilton clients in heavily regulated industries like healthcare and social services. For example, when onboarding residential care providers like senior living communities, Hamilton conducts an exhaustive data-driven analysis that covers:

• Business model, goals, and objectives
• Service lines and protocols, with a focus on avoiding potential coverage gaps
• Liability history
• Current quality assurance and risk management practices using ServarusRM’s ERMA software, a cutting-edge risk assessment solution
• Compliance and risk transfer posture

This is very different from the more transactional approach common elsewhere in the industry. There’s less “what do you need from us” and more “how can we help you get what you need?”

Client needs aren’t static, of course. So Hamilton’s team consults clients frequently to stay one step ahead of their needs and help them spot opportunities before they become liabilities.

Beyond the Standard — Non-Traditional and Next-Generation Insurance Options

Hamilton Insurance Agency offers a full lineup of standard employee insurance products, such as group health, dental, vision, life, disability, and AD&D. It also offers standard business insurance policies like commercial property, general liability, and commercial auto coverage.

But that’s just the start. Hamilton stands out from the pack thanks to its innovative (and growing) lineup of niche and next-generation insurance products — many of which  were either little known or simply didn’t exist 10 or 20 years ago. Think cyber liability, employment practices liability, and active shooter coverage.

For better or worse, these are essential coverage for many businesses today, and Hamilton Insurance Agency ensures they’re as easily available  as more traditional policies.

Tying It All Together With the BeneBee Mobile App

Hamilton Insurance Agency pairs its comprehensive insurance portfolio and customized approach to client relationships with BeneBee, a user-friendly mobile app that connects clients with in-depth insurance resources and 24/7 support no matter where they happen to be. BeneBee’s capabilities include:

• Easy access to uniform virtual insurance cards
• On-demand client support to help manage insurance administration issues
• Personalized enrollment how-to videos
• Digital customized insurance and benefits handbooks
• Free pharmaceutical search powered by GoodRx
• 24/7 telemedicine support (phone or videoconferencing) with no copays or deductibles

Hamilton’s Jason Zuccari led BeneBee’s development team with the goal of streamlining the policy management process and engaging the next generation of policyholders. Along the way, they decided to turn BeneBe into something more. It became an indispensable tech toolkit that makes life easier for employers and employees alike.

BeneLink Connect — Simplifying Business For Enterprise Policyholders

The BeneBee app isn’t Hamilton’s only client-facing tech solution. It complements BeneLink Connect, a powerful insurance enrollment management app for insurance brokers, employers, and employees.

BeneLink Connect facilitates critical actions (and potential sticking points) throughout the enrollment lifecycle, including:

• Enrollment access — the portal is available around the clock to employers and employees
• ACA compliance, with an employee waiver capture tool that ensures everyone’s opt-in/out decision is recorded
• Real-time benefit election processing with employee confirmation statements
• Timestamping for all transactions, reducing compliance risk and simplifying recordkeeping
• Year-round change functionality for new hire elections and waivers, life events, terminations, and demographic changes

Hamilton Insurance Agency Is Innovating for the Next 40 Years

Today, Hamilton is a nationally recognized insurance technology leader renowned for above-and-beyond client service. Zuccari is proud to operate a people-first insurance business that has wholeheartedly embraced technological change without losing its soul.

With an evolving lineup of standard and not-so-standard insurance products, industry-leading mobile app technology, and a powerful risk management solution for businesses in a variety of different industries, Hamilton is showing other independent insurance agencies and brokerages what true innovation looks like.

Its success also serves as a reminder that amid increasingly rapid technological change, enterprises that don’t innovate tend to fall behind. Hamilton’s team is proudly building a business that can withstand any challenges that come their way over the next 40 years. Here’s hoping its example inspires other independent agencies and brokerages to do the same.

Featured Image: Kampus Production; Pexels.com. Thank you!

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A survey conducted by the National Retail Federation found that eCommerce product returns accounted for about 8 percent of all sales by respondents. With that figure amounting to about $260 billion in lost sales in the United States alone that year, any way of paring it down can bring in a substantial return of income (ROI).

Entreprises Look to Invest in Products and Platforms in the New Year.

Enterprises are looking to invest in products and platforms that can improve their bottom line, either through cost savings, increased profits, or both. Many companies, especially those that have been in the market for a long time, still struggle with decentralized, irregular means of managing product information.

Businesses are at a crossroads where data quality matters more than ever, and enterprises are going out of their way to keep customers supplied with accurate and relevant product data. Each piece of data can impact operational efficiency, customer experience, and ultimately ROI.

Standardize Product Data Across Channels

In many ways, standardizing product data across channels is the key to driving measurable ROI in eCommerce, which makes Product Information Management (PIM) inevitable. A PIM enables improved data accuracy, productivity, and customer reach.

Customers look for a frictionless path to buy products, and an organized product catalog through PIM implementation can amplify customer retention rates.

From centralizing product information to improving business productivity and powering content syndication to shortening the time to market — PIM’s positive impact on businesses are far-reaching.

Your Product Information Management not only enhances product data and product-related processes but also enables seamless syndication. These processes increase selling opportunities, as well as reduce returns and buyer frustration.

Benefits Directly Achieved Through PIM Implementation

1. Exceptional Productivity:

Streamlined processes and collaboration make the optimization of product data and digital assets a breeze. An advanced PIM solution can automatically update eCommerce platforms with product data from sources throughout the value chain, minimizing manual work and reducing the room for errors.

The process enables operational excellence, supply chain optimization, and order fulfillment accuracy, thus reducing instances of product returns, complaints, and even shopping cart abandonment.

In addition, advanced PIM streamlines product data management processes and facilitates collaboration across departments, resulting in more time and resources to focus on growing and scaling eCommerce operations — which all translate to higher online revenues and ROI.

PIM can empower enterprises with unlimited internal and external data sources that can be crafted accordingly to enable personalized online experiences for customers across channels. By centralizing product data and combining it with store analytics, PIM allows businesses to access insights that aren’t possible by comparing countless spreadsheets.

2. High Growth:

To thrive in an increasingly crowded and competitive eCommerce environment, enterprises need to differentiate themselves through engaging product experiences powered by accurate, complete, and consistent product data.

Customers, retailers, distributors, sales teams, and other stakeholders can have consistent product data anytime, anywhere, hence significantly reducing the chances of deviation from expectations or human error. PIM is a single repository to gather, manage, and expand product information and integrate it with other data sources and eCommerce channels.

Being a central hub for all product content, PIM helps businesses to increase product data quality, improve the team’s communication process, drive more sales, elevate customer experience, and significantly boost ROI.

Moreover, with robust and accurate product data and customer details, it is easier to target users with specific product needs, enabling cross-selling and up-selling, reducing search time, and increasing sales revenue.

An advanced PIM platform allows enterprises to gather, standardize, enrich, contextualize, and distribute product data. Plus, it can help accelerate time-to-market and speed up the enrichment process, giving businesses more selling days and slashing enrichment costs, all without increasing the number of errors in the product information.

In addition, completeness of product information facilitates informed purchases and eventually reduces returns.

3. Customer Loyalty:

“When customers connect with brands through multiple devices, portals, interfaces, websites, and apps, the accuracy and consistency of product data can significantly impact customer trust.”  When shopping online, accurate and up-to-date product information plays a vital role in converting potential buyers into actual buyers.

According to a report by Forbes, businesses that focus on improving customer experience achieve an 80% increase in their income. Data consistency and accuracy assure customers about the authenticity of product specifications, improve brand credibility, and build confidence.

By perfecting the product data, enabling increased upsell, and cross-sell opportunities, PIM helps businesses master the customer experience. In addition, an advanced PIM tool can enhance product pages, adding all the details necessary for a buyer to choose a product over competitors, boosting sales and revenue.

4. Scalability:

The number of products are subject to change as products are upgraded, modified, or changed over time. To manage and organize the purchasing, production, and communication across channels — relevant product data for multiple uses is critical.

PIM can provide complete data compilation transparency, so the latest changes stay updated when product information is updated, revived, and enriched by multiple teams across the value chain.

PIM can also act as a single point to gather and nurture product data and synchronously disseminate it across channels as the product line expands.

A repeatable, robust process to translate and localize content and push it out to appropriate markets or regions greatly increases a business’s ability to engage globally and be relevant locally. A research report by Facts & Factors reveals that the global cross-border B2C eCommerce market is forecasted to reach $4,820 billion by 2026, at a 27% CAGR through 2027.

PIM enables companies to easily and quickly onboard, validate, manage, localize, and publish the product information they need to market and sell across multiple distribution channels successfully. PIM can fast-track cross-border growth strategy that depends on expansion into new locales. This will enable businesses to achieve scalability across channels, resulting in reaching a wider user range and maximizing revenue.

5. Flexibility and Adaptability:

Quick turnaround times are crucial to eCommerce and digital success, enabling enterprises to plan and respond to changes in demand because of seasonal shifts, events, and new product launches. With a cloud-based PIM, businesses can configure the solution to take advantage of market opportunities easily.

The PIM platform offers flexibility to adapt and manage all data processes swiftly and seamlessly, resulting in multi-domain and multi-vector compatibility. With such capability, any size eCommerce business can gain an impactful omnichannel presence, ensuring that correct product data and information is accessible to customers at the right time.

In addition, it helps companies to expand their catalog and launch new products at the right time without leaving competitors the space to outshine. Also, accurate product information helps design compelling messages around the products.

With PIM’s complete, transparent, optimized, and reliable data, marketers can plan targeted promotions across sales channels for different geographic and demographic categories.

Achieve ROI with Automated PIM

The advancement in multi-channel marketing platforms provides ample opportunities for businesses to expand brand reach and increase ROI faster. However, investing in advanced PIM technology can drive more qualitative and quantitative ROI.

For enterprises looking to manage data of thousands of products and attributes, PIM’s capabilities support other systems and will produce the returns decision-makers seek. Instead of spending days in analytics programs calculating ROI, an automated PIM can enable enterprises to analyze and respond faster than competitors to generate more sales.

Featured Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Shutterstock; Thank you!

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The need for community is hardwired into the human psyche. It’s why most people enjoy spending time with others. Being part of a community fosters connections, builds a sense of belonging, and encourages customer loyalty.

Is it any wonder, then, that so many companies try to build communities around their brands?

Organizations that are successful at creating communities among both internal and external stakeholders can gain many advantages. Perhaps the biggest benefit is a core group of steadfast supporters. Just look at Disney’s branded community, which no doubt has had a hand in shaping the entertainment giant’s impressive profitability.

The Rise of Superfan Marketing

Over the years, Disney has generated an army of superfans. Among those superfans are stars like Katy Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tim Tebow. However, Disney’s superfandom isn’t limited to big names. Anyone who identifies with Disney’s ethos and ecosystem is welcome to join the brand’s community. And if you’ve ever tried to talk a Disney superfan out of their beliefs, you know it’s impossible. They’re faithful cheerleaders.

Another benefit to developing a brand community comes from a marketing perspective. Community members develop an inherent sense of pride. That pride becomes an impetus for them to share their experiences freely.

For example, community members of an organization or brand frequently post unsolicited shoutouts on social media. That kind of word-of-mouth advertising is powerful because it’s so raw and genuine. Remember: Consumers tend to trust the words of influencers and peers over the words of companies. So any authentic and unprompted praise for a brand carries a lot of weight.

A final benefit to brand communities is the development of a stronger brand identity. Businesses can struggle to create and develop identities. A community can help solidify its identity and even guide its evolution.

Patagonia’s community is an example of how the brand community drives and informs the corporate identity—and vice versa. It’s no secret that Patagonia cares about environmental concerns. Its community does, too, which further deepens Patagonia’s green initiative impacts.

The bottom line is that businesses that want to get ahead can achieve more when they promote community development. And you can start the seeds of a community right away. The key is to take a page from a thriving company with a burgeoning community like CitizenShipper.

The CitizenShipper Model: Getting Community Right

To understand CitizenShipper’s community, you first need to understand how the company works.

CitizenShipper is essentially a portal. The portal connects people who need items shipped with people who can transport those items. It’s essentially a “rideshare” platform for treasured (and unique) stuff. Whether you need someone to take a piano across town or a puppy across the country, you can depend upon CitizenShipper.

Though CitizenShipper’s model serves a gap, it’s the company’s expanding and expansive community that has catapulted it to success. CitizenShipper continues to make the most of its community in several key ways.

1. The company has allowed customers to lead the brand community direction.

Like many companies, CitizenShipper launched with a wide target audience in mind. However, one audience grew faster than any other. That audience? Pet parents and dog breeders. Unknowingly, CitizenShipper had tapped into several unmet needs of pet lovers.

For instance, many pet parents either couldn’t or didn’t want to transport their beloved animals via traditional airline carriers. Consequently, they used CitizenShipper to find pet-friendly drivers eager to take their furry best friends from point A to point B. As word of CitizenShipper spread among pet parents, breeders began to take notice, too.

CitizenShipper leaned into serving this unexpected and vibrant community that was beginning to flourish. For instance, the company added extra background check must-haves for pet drivers. It also set up automatic Pet Protection Plans.

Those customer-based changes have paid off and prompted community-fueled growth. As a result, CitizenShipper has brought about the safe travel of more than 77,000 domesticated animals over more than 100 million miles.

2. The company concentrates on hard-to-ship and highly treasured items.

In addition to pets, CitizenShipper focuses on shipping people’s most treasured (and sometimes unwieldy) belongings. Think motorcycles, heavy equipment, fragile objects, and watercraft. Plenty of owners feel an emotional attachment to these belongings. Consequently, they want their treasures to get the white-glove treatment.

How does this drive a sense of community?

When someone’s rare collection of china pieces is brought safely from Portland to Miami, that person is delighted. And a delighted customer wants to have those same good feelings again and again. The result? The customer looks for other opportunities to use CitizenShipper and become a repeat buyer.

The more repeat CitizenShipper buyers there are, the bigger the community becomes. From a cost-per-lead standpoint, regular customers are a huge boon to the bottom line. The more times an existing customer comes back, the less is spent on lead acquisition. That means a brand community can have a direct influence on profit margins.

3. The company serves as a gathering place for people to meet.

When someone posts a listing on CitizenShipper, the listing is seen by countless pre-vetted drivers. Consequently, interested drivers can bid on the listing, and posters get to decide which driver meets their needs. Though this is a systematic process, it’s not an impersonal one.

As a company, CitizenShipper has done its best to promote personalization, above transactions.

Yes, a transaction occurs. But the transaction has a very human touch. An example of this can be found in the use of communication between shippers and drivers. All drivers are encouraged to send pictures of and information about their progress. This keeps everyone in the loop and makes the experience a more individualized one.

It’s not unusual for strangers who met as posters and drivers on CitizenShipper to stay in touch after working together. As these networks of relationships grow, the networks fuel the growth of the broader CitizenShipper community. The relationships encourage more reviews, which further validate the trustworthiness of the company.

Without its brand community, CitizenShipper might be just another portal. Instead, it’s a business that’s fast becoming a household name.

Featured Image: Blue Bird; Pexels.com. Thank you!

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Companies can reduce customer churn by 67% if they succeed in solving customer issues during first-time interactions. This is what makes first-call resolution such an important factor for every organization. But what is the first call resolution? What factors influence first-call resolution? How can you ensure a good first-call resolution rate?

If you’re seeking answers to all these questions, you’re in the right place. Throughout this article, we have explained everything encompassing first-call resolution. So, have a read of this article and understand everything you need to know about first-call resolution.

What is First Call Resolution?

First Call Resolution, as the term itself explains it, is the ability of a call center to solve customer issues, problems, queries, or requests in the first call itself without any need for a follow-up.

This is an important metric for call centers because it determines the call center executive’s ability to efficiently help the customers while also helping deliver customer satisfaction and garnering customer loyalty. In fact, good customer service is one of the primary factors in building customer trust and loyalty for a company. So, you need to maintain a good level of first-call resolution to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.

How to Calculate First Call Resolution?

First Call Resolution is an important metric focused upon by call centers because it determines the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as the efficiency of employees.

There’s a simple formula to calculate this metric.

First Call Resolution = (Number of Cases Resolved in the First Call / Total Number of Cases) *100

So, for instance, if you have 100 cases in total and your executive resolved 60 of them in the first call, your first call resolution rate would be 60%.

What is the Importance of First Call Resolution

Given the level of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty that first-call resolution drives, one can clearly understand how essential it is for any organization to maintain a good first-call resolution rate.

Hereinbelow are some more points that detail the importance of first call resolution.

1. Track Agent Performance

First-call resolution shows how efficient your agents are in resolving customer queries at the first instance without the need for a follow-up. The higher these numbers, the better your agents’ performance.

So, by keeping a check on first call resolution, you can constantly keep a check on your agents’ performance and take actions to improve the same as well, because evidently, 54% of the customers globally feel that customer services in organizations require improvements.

2. Provides Better Sales Opportunities

When customers are satisfied with your company, they tend to purchase more from your company. Statistics reveal that good first-call resolution improves cross-selling rate by 20%.

So, you get better sales opportunities which in turn increases business profits.

3. Improves Net Promoter Score

When the customers like your services and are satisfied with the way you solve their problems quickly and expeditiously, they are more likely to recommend your organization to other people they know.

As per research, a customer experience promoter has a lifetime value to a company that is 600 to 1400% more than the lifetime value of a detractor.

So, you get an increase in the lifetime value of the promoters, and that works great to increase your business profits.

4. Provides Agent Satisfaction

Just like customers don’t like coming back call after call for the resolution of their issues, call center agents like it no better to deal with the same customers repeatedly. The faster they are able to solve customer issues, the happier they are, as their performance is measured as efficient, and they also get perks at their job. So, good first-call resolution also promotes higher agent satisfaction which creates a positive work environment.

5. Reduce Customer Churn

85% of customer churn is caused due to poor service that could have been easily avoided. One way to avoid customer churn is to increase the first call resolution rate. When customers have a good experience with customer service, they tend to like the service and would want to come back, which garners customer loyalty and reduces customer churn.

What are the Factors Influencing First Call Resolution?

First Call Resolution is an essential metric, and you need to reach at least the standard percentage for that metric. However, what influences your first call resolution rate? It’s essential to know these factors so that you can work on improving the first call resolution rate for your organization.

Hereinbelow are nine factors that essentially influence your first call resolution rate.

1. Work Environment Complexity

The work environment greatly influences an employee’s work in the organization. So, the more complex the work environment, the more difficult it is to maintain a good first-call resolution rate. These complexities include the level of authority, company policies and procedures, red tape, etc. It’s essential to keep things simple to attain a good first-call resolution rate.

2. Team’s Role in First Call Resolution

The team and agent knowledge role matters in first-call resolution. The better the team and agent support one another, the higher the first call resolution rate. It’s essential that the team and agent both understand the company policies, procedures, etc. and also have knowledge about the latest promotions, offers, etc., to efficiently answer the customers and solve their queries.

3. Multiple Channels

The channels being offered to customers for getting customer service and support also matter for first-call resolution. There are multiple channels depending on what channel the customers use to access the support.

If the customers use live chat support, it’s easier and faster to resolve their queries and questions.

However, if they use ticket systems, it may take some time to answer them, and there may be an exchange of a few emails as well. Here are a few examples of how to respond to support tickets so you can cut down on the number of emails it takes to find the root of the customer’s problem.

So, first-call resolution highly depends on the use of channels as well.

4. Lack of Authority to Solve Problem

The authority of an agent to solve the customer problem also influences first-call resolution to a huge extent. For instance, if a customer is asking for a refund, however, the agent lacks the authority to grant the refund, and there is no way that the agent will be able to resolve the call in the first instance. There will have to be a follow-up call with a person who has the relevant authority.

So, authority matters a lot when it comes to first-call resolution, and the lack of same affects the first-call resolution rate negatively.

5. Agent Communication Style and Skill

The way the agent communicates with the customers also influences the first call resolution rate. The agent must know how to impress the customers and must always talk in a positive tone that makes the customer feel like the agent is on their side and working efficiently to solve their problems.

Sometimes, it’s mere communication skills that solve all customer queries, and you’re able to close the call at the first instance.

6. Level of Training of Reps

Training is essential to build communication skills and impart the agents with the necessary knowledge about delivering support to the customers. When the agents are trained well, it reflects in their calls, and they are able to increase the first call resolution rate.

7. Level of Training Imparted to Agents

How well the agents are trained for the calls influences their first call resolution. The agents who are trained well and are imparted practice before they can go live are more equipped and skilled to solve customer queries in the first call than those who are not trained well and are not given enough practice before putting them on actual calls.

8. Level of Authority to Solve the Problem

Authority to solve a problem greatly influences the first call resolution rate. It’s essential that the agents have the required authority to solve customer queries, concerns, and requests instantly rather than waiting for their superior authority to authorize them for action.

9. Company Policies & Procedures

The policies and procedures of a company also influence first-call resolution. If the company has stringent policies and a lot of red tape, it’s likely to have a lower first-call resolution rate. So, it’s essential for a company to maintain flexible policies and procedures so that agents are able to play by the rule book while also efficiently resolving their customer queries and questions.

Best Practices to Improve First Call Resolution Rate

There are multiple factors that influence the first call resolution rate. Based on those factors, there are also practices that can improve your first call resolution rate.

Here are all such practices explained in detail for your understanding.

1. Observe the Complete Picture

You must look at the entire customer journey as they approach the support. While it may be their first call, their requests may be second or even third because they might probably have tried finding solutions through your self-service resources.

If that is the case, resolving the problem in the first call becomes more important because the customer has already become quite frustrated with the self-service resources not working.

When you look at that customer journey, you get an idea about how much effort you need to put into call resolution, and you handle the call accordingly with your full efficiency.

2. Find Common Issues for Delayed Resolution

Sometimes, some calls are resolved late due to the same issues at the end of customer service agents. It could be a lack of authority, lack of training, policies and procedures, or anything else. It’s best to identify such common issues for delayed resolution and work on them so that such common problems no longer remain the reason for calls not being resolved.

3. Leverage Interaction Analytics

All the customer call interactions are recorded, and you can use those records for data interpretation and analytics purposes. Leverage all the analytics that you can. You can see which calls went well and which calls need improvement, and based on the analytics, you can design further training programs for your agents while also creating resources for commonly asked questions and using good interactions as examples for training the employees.

4. Measure FCR Performance

Constantly measure the first call resolution performance. Measuring the performance will give you an idea about where you stand, and you can take steps for improvement based on the performance measurement reports so that good performance can be made best and bad performance can be analyzed. You can take steps to improve the same.

5. Effectively Respond and React to Customers

Responding to customers efficiently, effectively, and quickly is the key to maintaining a good first-call resolution rate. Take the calls confidently, understand customer queries and respond effectively to the customers, ensuring that their issues are truly resolved.

6. Create follow-up Surveys

Asking the customers for their feedback on the call will help you know and understand how good and efficient you are in solving customer queries. Create follow-up surveys to be shared with the customers for their feedback and make it a point to ask the customers to fill up those surveys so that you can get ratings for your calls and you can use the insights from the customers to improve your first call resolution rate.

7. Observe the Complete Customer Journey

You must always look at the complete picture. You must know what your customer has gone through before finally reaching out to you. While it may be their first call, it’s possible that they have tried reaching out to you before or that they have tried your resources but didn’t get a satisfactory solution.

When you look at the complete customer journey, you understand their experience so far and can work on providing them with the solutions that actually work for them.

Platforms that Help in Providing Better Support to Customers

First-call resolution is essential to every organization, and you don’t want to leave any stone unturned to improve that metric. The best way to ensure good customer support is to use the best customer support software that helps provide great customer support.

Here are some of the platforms that you can use.

1. Custify.com

Custify is a customer success software for SaaS which allows you to reduce customer churn and grow your revenues by enhancing your sales.

You can easily identify customer behavior and patterns which further help identify the opportunities for sales and help grow revenue. The platform is also great for integrating your other tools. You get predictive analytics and insights into customer behavior and employee performance, which further helps you build strategies for the future.

• Pricing: Custom

You can contact them to get a custom quote for the software.

2. Zonkafeedback.com

Zonka Feedback is a customer support tool that allows you to create exciting and engaging customer surveys and feedback forms so that you can get insights into what your customers have experienced from your services.

Based on that feedback, you can improve your services and launch new products that meet customer needs.

Additionally, you can create workflows to better manage your operations and track the performance of your agents.

Pricing

Personal

• Essential – $24/month
• Starter – $44/month

Business

• Professional – $79/month
• Growth – $169/month
• Enterprise – $429/month
• Custom

3. Podium.com

Podium is a customer service management tool that helps you connect with your customers and build better relationships with them. Besides that, it also has different tools integrated into it that help manage workflows and ensure business growth and revenue.

Pricing

• Essential – $289/month
• Standard – $449/month
• Professional – $649/month

Are You Ready to Improve Your First Call Resolution?

So, that was all about first-call resolution, and it’s clear that it is a very essential metric for your organization’s performance, especially when it comes to keeping up customer trust and loyalty. While there are many factors that influence it, there are many ways to manage those factors and improve your first call resolution rate.

We hope this article was helpful and gave you a complete understanding of first-call resolution for you to work on constantly improving the same.

The post 9 Factors Influencing First Call Resolution appeared first on ReadWrite.

Your customers are easily able to voice their concerns and get a quick redressal of their problems. Added to this, if both the situations mentioned above are dealt with swiftly and with the least effort by the customer, then the chances of your company taking home the award for the best retail customer service offered are high.

Statista projected global retail sales to reach over $30 trillion by 2024. So in a highly competitive arena of retail services, it is essential to stand out with impeccable customer service. Luckily, retailers have an ultimate weapon to streamline their operations, produce a professional workforce, and provide a smooth customer service experience- knowledge management.

What is knowledge management?

Knowledge management, or KM organizes existing information within a company to make it more accessible, usable, and changeable whenever needed. KM also helps establish best practices for a company to store and share information in the future.

Knowledge management for retailers is crucial to help them set up the best practices to access and share retail knowledge and empower the workforce. Now, what is retail knowledge?

Retail knowledge is anything right from the information of products or services to the SOPs defined in a retail setting on how to deal with a client. A key attribute of retail knowledge is that more than tangible or documented information exists in the form of intellectual or data silos, confined to a few people’s minds.

This leaves workers unable to tap the information when required. This is where knowledge management solutions for retailers help break the curse of data inaccessibility and supercharge data flow within any retail setting.

Why choose knowledge management for retailers?

#1 Helps with in-store self-service

Optimized self-service mediums:

It can be frustrating if the customer cannot access information about a service or a product after multiple attempts at the self-service information tabs.

Likewise, the customer service experience becomes nightmarish if the customer initiates a purchase after going through an outdated information piece. Knowledge management for retailers helps them in optimizing self-service mediums via carefully created and curated information pieces.

Customers find the relevant information to their queries in a simple, crisp, and exciting manner, elevating their overall shopping experience.

Well-trained workforce:

A well-trained workforce is a critical element of an optimized self-service system. Well-trained employees with in-depth knowledge of the information base can better guide customers to access the information they need.

Likewise, efficient in-store staff can step up and explain any aspect of data if the client encounters any problem. KM for employees helps retail outlets to add notes and other information in parallel with information pieces to help them correctly convey the relevant answers to their customers.

#2 Enables training for retail employees

Onboarding employees:

Knowledge management for retailers makes the onboarding process swift and efficient. Companies can set up training modules to help new employees quickly acquire basic and crucial knowledge and begin their work. KM for onboarding employees is in line with their expectations, as 49% of employees want to learn when and where they need to.

Since the knowledge management system consists of different directories or spaces that help in the bifurcation of data, employees can learn new information wherever they want without the requirement of any external trainer.

Re-training workforce:

Importantly, employee training is a never-ending journey. Knowledge management ensures that the workforce across all the retail outlets can access an existing product’s updated training module or learn about a new product from scratch.

Additionally, knowledge management for retailers helps them control the flow of correct information if the business is spread across multiple outlets.

#3 Provides a ready repository of everything for retail employees

Quick access to data:

A retail setting consists of a wide range of complex information. Guides of different products and services, information on the latest products, procedures to handle a customer, method of auditing inventory, and the list is never-ending. Knowledge management for retailers helps in organizing all this critical information and makes it accessible to the employees.

Knowledge management software also breaks data silos and helps employees record their customer experience or explicitly acquired information to benefit the workforce. Along with this, employees have the freedom to flag any data for management to review. This keeps the knowledge base free of irrelevant information pieces.

Multilingual data:

Retailers no longer have to worry about expanding operations in areas with language barriers. KM allows multilingual data support that empowers employees to access data in their preferred language. Employees can then better help customers in regional languages with multilingual support for customer queries.

Customer data:

Customization is the key to standing out from the crowd. Knowledge management systems integrate data from CRM systems to offer deep insights into the customer. Based on this, employees can upsell relevant products to customers enlightened by their buying history. Such a personalized shopping experience promotes customer loyalty, as 80% of customers are likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience.

#4 Effective systems for updating knowledge

Weeds out irrelevant information:

An unorganized information base within retail settings adds new information to the existing one. It leads to outdated information still being part of the information base in the forms of files, Excel spreadsheets, media, etc., and accessible to anyone.

Here, the probability of unwanted and outdated information creeping up is high since there is no way to ensure the complete removal of data from the scattered database.

On the flip side, knowledge management for retailers makes the knowledge base the ‘single source of truth without any worries of irrelevant information overshadowing relevant ones.

Simple and efficient systems for updating knowledge:

A centralized knowledge base for a retail company ensures a quick and smooth process of updating knowledge. Administrators can quickly locate the knowledge piece that needs to be updated and can update the information. This leaves no trace of redundant information that can misinform the workforce or the customers.

#5 Interactive use of AI for enhanced store experience

Interactive chats:

AI has been redefining how customers interact within a retail setting. With deep insights into customer habits, buying history, and shopping preferences AI chats offer personalized solutions to enhance customer experience. After browsing the knowledge base, the AI will show a customer looking for a new washroom accessory narrowed-down search results.

AI insights:

Another advantage of knowledge management for retailers is that the insights from an AI-driven knowledge base help retailers understand their customer’s buying habits. Retailers can then reiterate their strategies to capture customer attention and push various products.

AI-powered knowledge management (by knowmax.ai) offers quick resolution queries to the in-store workforce to swiftly locate the most asked questions. Further, analytics of the knowledge base helps administrators monitor the relevancy of the data and, most importantly, most assessments of popularly accessed knowledge pieces.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Dziana Hasanbekava; Pexels; Thank you!

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